There Is Still Hope

Milwaukee teacher’s aide facing deportation makes urgent plea to ICE

Yessenia Ruano has a meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tomorrow (February 14.)  I admire her courage and willingness to share her story with Sophie Carson, a Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel reporter.  Each story shared helps to show the humanity of immigrants and how they have contributed to the USA. 

“Yessenia Ruano can’t imagine returning to her home country of El Salvador. She has twin U.S. citizen daughters and a job as a teacher’s aide in Milwaukee. She’s lived in the U.S. for 14 years. Violence and repression are rampant in El Salvador.  But it’s becoming increasingly likely she won’t have any choice.

Ruano’s future, and the future of her 9-year-old girls, hinges on a check-in appointment Friday with U.S. immigration officials. She is asking for more time so her application for a T visa, or a visa given to victims of severe human trafficking, can be submitted and considered.

“I have good moral character, I pay my taxes, and I’ve always contributed to society in this country,” Ruano, 37, said in Spanish at a news conference Tuesday.

She chose to publicize her story at the Voces de la Frontera offices on Milwaukee’s south side in hopes it will sway U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials not to carry out her deportation order.

“I want my two daughters to grow up in a country safer than mine, in a country that offers opportunities to those who want to push themselves, and study, and leave a legacy,” Ruano said.

She is one of countless immigrants without legal status who are facing the terrifying reality of deportation even though they haven’t committed any crimes, have U.S. citizen family members and say they’d face persecution if they returned home. People like Ruano were not priorities for removal during the Biden administration.”

Thank you, Yessenia Ruano, for speaking out and thank you Sophie Carson for sharing her story.