After hours on a plane and more time at immigration checkpoints, Yessenia Ruano emerged from the secure zone of Chicago O’Hare airport and broke into a smile.
After a year in El Salvador, Ruano, a former Milwaukee teacher’s aide who captured the city’s attention as she fought her deportation, returned to the U.S. July 7. She was hopeful about her family’s future.
“This is a blessing from God for us,” she said, describing it as a dream and a miracle.
A month after a judge ruled she should be allowed to come back and wait for a decision in her trafficking victims’ visa case, she flew back with her twin U.S. citizen daughters, age 11. But she had to leave her husband, Miguel, and the family dog behind in El Salvador.
“I want my daughters to grow up here,” she said. “As a mom, they are my first priority.”
Ruano pushed a luggage cart with four suitcases packed with clothes, shoes, books and toys, and twins Elizabeth and Paola carried backpacks. They woke up at 3 a.m. to catch their flight from San Salvador to Chicago, and they stepped out of O’Hare security at 6:30 p.m.
It was only the girls’ second flight ever. Their first, last June, was to El Salvador. Despite her pending trafficking victims’ visa case, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials last year said Ruano must carry out her own deportation or risk being detained by ICE agents.
The girls were in good spirits and said they were excited to see their cousins in Milwaukee again. They plan to return to ALBA School, where they used to attend and Ruano worked as a teacher’s aide, for sixth grade in the fall. Paola said most of what she learned in fifth grade in El Salvador was a repeat, so she’s not sure she’ll be prepared for sixth-grade curriculum.
It was a bittersweet homecoming without Miguel. When a federal judge ruled Ruano could return, that ruling didn’t include Miguel. Ruano has filed a petition asking for him to join them in the U.S., and she hopes he’ll be able to come back in a couple months.
Still, they had to leave without the certainty he could one day follow. Immigration authorities gave her until July 16 to fly back to the U.S., or she’d lose the chance altogether. Ruano and Miguel talked about it, and they both cried, she said. But they agreed it was the right move for their daughters.
“We tried to be strong,” she said.
The family had planned for their small white dog, Copitos, to fly with them, but airport authorities did not let him board because they were missing one form. Miguel took him back home.
In El Salvador, Miguel will continue working on building a home. He and Ruano poured their savings into its construction in the last year, she said, and were nearly complete – new windows, roofing and painting remained.
In Milwaukee, Ruano and her daughters will stay with a relative for now. They are renting their home to a tenant who is expected to move out soon. Then, the house will be entirely empty. Ruano got rid of all her furniture when the family left for El Salvador.
“I’m not afraid to start over,” she said, laughing.
The last year reaffirmed for Ruano her belief that life in El Salvador is difficult and has fewer opportunities for her children than the U.S., she said.
She’ll probably have to attend an ICE check-in appointment sometime soon. But she said she doesn’t care, at this point, if ICE puts her on electronic monitoring. She’s focused on bigger goals: getting a work permit, reopening her trafficking victims’ visa case – winning it – and bringing Miguel back to the U.S.
Ruano is “hoping, hoping, always,” she said.
From there, she wants to get a teaching certificate in the U.S. – she studied education in college – and teach at her daughters’ school.
Ruano returns as the issue of U.S. immigration enforcement is far from settled. Milwaukee saw a wave of ICE arrests just days ago that swept up several people without criminal records, advocates say. Ruano has kept up with national immigration news, and views what’s happening as “‘inhumane persecution.”
“This is a great nation. We can’t be divided or destroyed by hate,” she said.
As she and her daughters posed for a picture with their suitcases at the airport, Ruano called out, putting a twist on the classic protest chant, “Sí se puede,” or “Yes we can.”
“Sí se pudo!” she said, turning it past tense. Yes we could.
Sophie Carson is a general assignment reporter who reports on religion and faith, immigrants and refugees and more. Contact her at scarson@gannett.com or 920-323-5758.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Yessenia Ruano returns to the U.S. after ICE forced her to leave | Exclusive
Reporting by Sophie Carson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Sophie Carson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
