Bryan Quintana-Salazar, 13, cried as his former teacher, Jennifer Walsh, of Ann Arbor, Mich., wiped tears from his face before he entered the security line with his family to travel to Mexico on Tuesday, August 1, 2017, at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Mich. Lourdes Salazar Bautista (not pictured) took her children with her to Mexico as she was deported. Now, to stay with their mother, Quintana-Salazar and his older sister will be attending a school in Toluca, Mexico. (Photo by Rachel Woolf/GroundTruth)
Lourdes Salazar Bautista lifted an old photograph of her daughter to her heart and smiled. It was late at night, and she was going through keepsakes that had accumulated over the years as she raised her family in Michigan. Her children, Bryan Quintana-Salazar, 13, and Lourdes Quintana-Salazar, 15, were sitting on the back porch as they tossed documents into a glowing fire in an effort to clean out the house. Pamela Quintana-Salazar, 19, sat opposite her mother, looking at old photographs. The family was preparing for the worst, yet still hoping for the best.
Soon after, Bautista was deported. She tearfully left Ann Arbor, a place she had called home for 20 years. Now she and her two youngest children, Bryan and Lourdes, stay with her mother in Mexico. Soon they will move into an apartment in Toluca, Mexico, where Bryan and Lourdes will attend school.
“Sometimes I can’t find the adequate words to explain to my kids that there’s no reason why they have to pay for their parents, being that they are citizens and they have the right to be in [the U.S.],” Bautista said. “They want to return to their schools with the lives they had in the U.S., since it is what they know.”
More than a month after the transition to Mexico, Bautista said she experiences a lack of employment opportunity and personal safety. She is hoping to find a job to support her children. “It is very hard to return to where you left one day looking for a better life,” Bautista said.
In the past, Bautista had been granted the ability to postpone deportation to take care of her children in the United States. This agreement lasted about seven years, in exchange for her husband’s deportation. Now, she faces a 10-year ban from the U.S. Her eldest daughter, Pamela, hopes to apply for a pardon once she turns 21 on behalf of her mother, which would allow her mother to come back to the U.S. Until then, Bautista and her two youngest children are separated from Pamela, who lives in East Lansing, Michigan while attending Michigan State University.
“I will continue fighting,” Bautista said. “So that one day we can return and live the life that, being American citizens, [my children] have the right to live.”
Lourdes Salazar Bautista received a hug from Tania Garcia Ortega, a family friend of 15 years, on Sunday, July 30, 2017, at Bautista’s former home in Ann Arbor, Mich. Bautista and Ortega gathered around the table with friends, family and anti-deportation campaign leaders the night before Bautista met with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and confirmed her deportation order. (Photo by Rachel Woolf/GroundTruth)
From left, Wilmer Garcia, Bryan Quintana-Salazar, 13, Lourdes Salazar Bautista and Tania Garcia Ortega prayed together in Ann Arbor, Mich., on July 30, 2017, the night before Bautista met with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Bautista gathered around the table with her friends, family and anti-deportation campaign leaders to pray that she be allowed to remain in the U.S. However, ICE confirmed her deportation order the following morning. (Photo by Rachel Woolf/GroundTruth)
From left, Lourdes Salazar Bautista and her daughter Pamela Quintana-Salazar, 19, embraced during a meeting with friends, family and anti-deportation campaign leaders on Sunday, July 30, 2017, the night before Bautista’s deportation order was confirmed. The family hopes that Quintana-Salazar will file for a pardon when she turns 21, to fight her mother’s 10-year ban from the United States. (Photo by Rachel Woolf/GroundTruth)
Bryan Quintana-Salazar, 13, watched his old school notebooks and family documents burn on Friday, July 28, 2017, at his home in Ann Arbor, Mich. Anticipating his mother’s deportation, the family burned important documents they no longer needed. (Photo by Rachel Woolf/GroundTruth)
Pamela Quintana-Salazar, 19, had a moment alone at a park near the ICE Enforcement Camp; Removal Operations Office in Detroit, Mich., as she waited for the news of if her mother, Lourdes Salazar Bautista, (not pictured), would be deported the following day. Quintana-Salazar did not go with her mother and siblings to the meeting with ICE in order to emphasize the fact that her two younger siblings are minors, which could strengthen Bautista’s argument. (Photo by Rachel Woolf/GroundTruth)
Lourdes Salazar Bautista, formerly of Ann Arbor, put her hands to her heart as she expressed concern for her children, moments after leaving the meeting confirming her deportation order on Monday, July 31, 2017, outside the ICE Enforcement Camp; Removal Operations Office in Detroit, Mich. Bautista had been granted continued temporary stays in the country after her husband was deported, so that she could care for her children. (Photo by Rachel Woolf/GroundTruth)
From left, Pamela Quintana-Salazar, 19, and Bryan Quintana-Salazar, 13 rested their heads on a table after the meeting on Monday, July 31, 2017, confirming their mother’s deportation. After the decision, they had to wait to begin the process of officially becoming Mexican-American citizens at the Consulate General of Mexico in Detroit, Mich. The three Quintana-Salazar children were born in the United States, and hope their dual-citizenship will help them travel back and forth to Mexico to see their parents with more ease. (Photo by Rachel Woolf/GroundTruth)
From left, Lourdes Quintana-Salazar, 15, her mother Lourdes Salazar Bautista, and family friend Leonor Kromis, of Ann Arbor, discussed where Quintana-Salazar would attend school in the fall on Monday, July 31, 2017. The children previously attended Community High School, in Ann Arbor, Mich. Now, to stay with their mother, Quintana-Salazar and her younger brother will be attending a school in Toluca, Mexico. (Photo by Rachel Woolf/GroundTruth)
From left, Lourdes Salazar Bautista and her family friend Leonor Kromis looked for the city Bautista’s husband currently lives in on a map of Mexico on Monday, July 31, 2017, at the Consulate General of Mexico in Detroit, Mich. Bautista’s husband, Luis Quintana Chaparro lives in San Nicolas, Mexico, a small village where Bautista does not think she can find work for herself or schooling for her children. (Photo by Rachel Woolf/GroundTruth)
Bryan Quintana-Salazar, 13, cried as his former teacher, Jennifer Walsh, of Ann Arbor, Mich., wiped tears from his face before he entered the security line with his family to travel to Mexico on Tuesday, August 1, 2017, at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Mich. Lourdes Salazar Bautista (not pictured) took her children with her to Mexico as she was deported. Now, to stay with their mother, Quintana-Salazar and his older sister will be attending a school in Toluca, Mexico. (Photo by Rachel Woolf/GroundTruth)
Lourdes Salazar Bautista looked up with tears in her eyes as she said her goodbyes to family and friends before her deportation to Mexico on Tuesday, August 1, 2017, at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Mich. (Photo by Rachel Woolf/GroundTruth)
From left, Pamela Quintana-Salazar, 19, hugged a loved one goodbye as her mother, Lourdes Salazar Bautista, hugged her brother, Pedro Salazar, before her deportation to Mexico on Tuesday, August 1, 2017, at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Mich. (Photo by Rachel Woolf/GroundTruth)
These photos were taken on four different days leading up to Lourdes Salazar Bautista’s deportation. In the time I spent taking these photos, everyone was understandably stressed and emotional. What this family is going through is not easy. My highest priority in photographing is to be sure the family is comfortable with my presence, and that I do not add any unneeded stress. Everything happened quickly, from praying around the table one night, to a whirlwind of errands and teary goodbyes in the airport.
I will be traveling to Mexico in October to continue telling the family’s story — the transition from an unexpected deportation. Their narrative needs to be heard in today’s political climate. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have arrested more than 10,800 “non-criminals” so far in 2017, as opposed to only 4,200 in 2016. Those numbers are rising, and Bautista is more than just a number.
