When there are deportations, you better believe there are families involved - there are parents being separated from their children. It doesn't reflect our values as Americans, and I don't think it fixes the issue. I think there would be a lot of advantages to creating paths to citizenship for people who are already working here so they are contributing to our economy.

Diane Guerrero

Categorized in : Thinking Children Believe

No one checked to see if I had a place to live or food to eat, and at 14, I found myself basically on my own.

Diane Guerrero

places-to-live my-own found

My parents' deportation gave me so much strength to keep on moving forward, because any type of failure - whether in school or with jobs or rejection from a casting office - nothing could be as bad as what I had already gone through. Nothing could be worse than coming home expecting to see your loving parents and them not being there.

Diane Guerrero

home school moving

I feel like you can't really be truthful as an artist and empathize with the human experience, unless you know your truth and you're not living a lie. So I'm learning through it, and it's making me a better person, and it's making me a better artist, I think.

Diane Guerrero

artist lying thinking

I broke down. I hid under the bed because I was afraid that somebody was going to come for me. I don’t know who that someone was but I was just so scared. Not a single person at any level of government took any note of me. No one checked to see if I had a place to live or food to eat, and at 14, I found myself basically on my own.

Diane Guerrero

levels bed government

I had dreams, but always told myself, 'Nah, that would never happen.' For a poor Latina, (acting) wasn't a reality.

Diane Guerrero

acting dream reality

I spent a long time in the shadows. I always had this feeling that I was the only one going through stuff, because I kept it a secret. Once I decided to use my voice in a way that could potentially help others, I found there were a lot of people like me - a lot of kids left behind. So, I wanted to call attention to the issue.

Diane Guerrero

helping-others long kids

We have a broken system, and we need politicians who are going to fix it. We need someone who's going to govern on behalf of everyone in this country, including immigrants. The fact of the matter is, the candidates need the Latino vote to win. If we feel we're not being represented and if we feel like the candidate is insulting us, ignoring us, and is not leading with fairness and empathy, I think that's going to be reflected in turnout.

Diane Guerrero

winning country thinking

I feel like there's this misconception that immigrants come here and just don't care about the system and paying taxes, and that's not true. My father was desperately trying to be a legal contributor to this society.

Diane Guerrero

care trying father

After a while, you're growing up so quickly and you begin to not know your parents anymore. You're left with the memories you had as a kid, but you're not a kid anymore and your experiences are separate. We are now much closer and communicate almost every day. It's a lot of work, but what holds us together is the hope that we will one day be together again.

Diane Guerrero

growing-up memories kids

Since I went public with my story, I've never experienced such hate. I sometimes want to crawl under my blanket and hide forever and say, "No, that's some other girl who had an opinion." My blood has boiled a few times, but I just have to come back to earth and say people are entitled to their own opinions and I'm entitled to share my story the way I want. And that's exactly what I'm doing.

Diane Guerrero

girl hate people

Love yourself no matter who you are or where you come from.

Diane Guerrero

yourself you love-yourself love

If we value children and family, there's a great need for change, and we should try immigration reform - create a path for citizenship for people already here, update the visa system.

Diane Guerrero

family change children people

When I go to places, I love going to all those kind of amusement parks and kind of cheesy things to do.

Diane Guerrero

places things go love

While awaiting deportation proceedings, my parents remained in detention near Boston, so I could visit them. They would have liked to fight deportation, but without a lawyer and an immigration system that rarely gives judges the discretion to allow families to stay together, they never had a chance.

Diane Guerrero

parents fight lawyer together

When you're the child of undocumented immigrants, you learn to keep your mouth shut.

Diane Guerrero

mouth your child you

I am here, a citizen of this country, and I'm saying, 'Hey, the system failed me. I am a good citizen. I contribute to this country, and here I am sharing my story. What are you going to do now?'

Diane Guerrero

i-am good me you

This is the kind of stuff me and my friends talk about. We sit around and drink coffee, and we're really angry: We're like, 'Where's the Latino Museum?' Where can we go with our families, where can we go with our friends to learn about our history?

Diane Guerrero

me angry coffee history

Sometimes I want to bury myself in bed, and I don't want anyone to know anything about me, and I don't want anyone to judge me.

Diane Guerrero

judge myself me sometimes

It's disheartening to see the hate speech and the divisive behavior. But at the same time, I have to believe that smart people and good people of this country don't give in to that.

Diane Guerrero

good hate time people

Immigrants are working hard to give our families a better life. Isn't that what the American Dream is?

Diane Guerrero

better american-dream dream life