As an advocate for deportees and family reunification, Yolanda Varona was able to witness some of the stories of deported veterans and mothers who, after years of struggle, managed to return to the United States with their families. This Friday has been his turn.
Varona, deported to Mexico in 2011 after living in the United States for 18 years, was able to embrace her daughter for the first time in more than a decade. The emotional reunion took place outside the San Ysidro pedestrian crossing, minutes after Varona returned to the country on humanitarian parole.
“It was like being reborn,” Varona said, describing the moment she was able to take her daughter.
Varona applied for parole under the Immigrant Veterans and Military Members Initiative (IMMVI) as a spouse of a former U.S. military.
Under the initiative, the United States considers applications for parole on a case-by-case basis of certain non-citizen military service members and their qualified relatives, including those who wish to enter the country.
Varona is married to U.S. Army veteran Hector Barajas, who started a support home for deported veterans after their own deportation. The couple met in Tijuana. Their activism brought them together, as Varona also led a support group but for deported mothers.
Barajas enlisted in the Army in 1995. According to the ACLU, which collaborated in his case, Army recruiters led him to believe that an honorable service would give rise to citizenship.
He was honorably discharged in 2001, but had problems with the law. He was imprisoned for two years and then deported in 2004.
With the help of the ACLU, Barajas returned to the country as a US citizen in 2018.
On that occasion Varona accompanied him as far as he could to the frontier. On Friday, Barajas did the same with his now wife. But this time, the couple crossed paths.
Yolanda Varona greets her family when she arrives in the US on Friday.
(Nelvin C. Cepeda – The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“I am just excited and happy. It’s been a long battle, “said Barajas, who wept when he saw his wife stepping on American soil.
Varona was deported on January 1, 2011, after returning to the country through the port of entry of Tecate. When officers sent their information, they found out he had been living in the country on a tourist visa, he said.
That day his life changed, but he found hope to help others, he said. With the Dreamers Moms group in Tijuana, she helped other deported mothers find various services, including legal assistance.
As a result, four mothers were able to return before her, and four more are waiting their turn, she said. Her success stories motivated her. He acknowledged that for some time he had lost hope of returning to his family one day.
But on Thursday, Varona received a call from the ACLU, who also helped with his case, and told him the good news. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “The first thing I did was go back to sleep. I wanted to fall asleep so I could wake up and open the phone again and read that it was true. “
Yolanda Varona hugs her daughter, Paulina Young, on Friday for the first time since 2010.
(Nelvin C. Cepeda – The San Diego Union-Tribune)
His daughter, Paulina Young, 31, described the meeting as “surreal.” He said he now wants to create a new bond with his mother, as they have been separated for more than a decade. “I was 19 when this happened (…) it’s just meeting me again.”