word to Y to start her journey and join him. Y left her 3 children behind, including her 3 month old baby girl because she was afraid that she would never see them again. She made a three week, 1,450-mile journey mostly by foot, and hitchhiked when she could. She had to hide from thieves and bad men who wanted to steal from and hurt her. She also had to hide from the U.S. Border Patrol out of fear that they would send her back to El Salvador. Y finally made it across the border and arrived safely into U.S. She reunited with her husband and they settled in Washington D.C. After they were granted TPS, they worked multiple jobs to earn money so that they could bring their children to the U.S. The eldest son T was a U.S. citizen, having been born in Kodiak. His return to America was as simple as purchasing a one way ticket to Washington and paying the airlines an extra fee for an unescorted minor. The younger children’s passages proved more difficult. Over the next four years, Y and E toiled to save over $16,000.00 to have their two El Salvador-born children escorted into the U.S. The children were brought into the country one at a time. First to come was their son B, who tells stories of swimming across rivers and being locked in cars and closets during the trip. H, Y and E’s baby girl crossed the borders when she was only four. Thankfully, she doesn’t remember the journey, and she doesn’t care to talk about it either. Once reunited, the entire family left Washington, D.C. and moved to Anchorage, Alaska where they joined E’s sister who was also living in the U.S. under TPS and Y’s parents who are U.S. citizens. Soon after, Y was able to find employment with a house cleaning agency. Just three years after working for the house cleaning company, she decided to start her own business. She has been able to support both her family and her sister-in-law’s family by serving 32 clients. While life in Anchorage is undoubtedly easier and better than life in El Salvador, the
family is still experiencing hardships due to their TPS and the fact that the two younger children are undocumented. Part of the law states that the individual being granted TPS must leave their country of origin by their own will. Since B and H were both minors when they fled El Salvador, they did not technically do so of their own will. Therefore, neither child has a social security number or U.S. identification. This has caused problems for the children, especially B, an 8th grade student at a local middle school. Y told her children to lie and hide the fact that they are undocumented. She urged her children to tell their friends and teachers that they were born in Alaska just like their classmates. B didn’t heed this advice, but instead he told some kids around school about his