Today is Children’s Day in Ecuador. 👧👧👦 Celebrating mine, who are my literal heart walking outside of my body. As a mom I admire, whose fight touched me deeply, once said: “Por nuestros niños, hasta la vida.” 🤍🤍🤍
#DíadelNiño #DíadelNiñoEcuatoriano
There are incredible people in Utah who are speaking up for their immigrant neighbors, and I’m deeply grateful to be surrounded by them. 💕
I’m also grateful that my kids get to witness what it looks like to raise your voice on the right side of history, so that many years from now, when these dark times are studied, they’ll remember that there were people who chose not to stay quiet and refused to look away.
Thank you to @malelinad , Gladys, @weierbrigette , Katie, Alba, Jackie, Emma, and Alejandra for sharing your powerful stories about our TPS neighbors and helping Utah see how family separation, and other cruel immigration policies, are impacting kids and families in hospitals, classrooms, places of worship, legal offices, workplaces, and neighborhoods. And thank you to @senatorluzescamilla and @repangelaromero for standing with our comunidad.
Join us at @momsrising / @mamasconpoder ! Everyone with a belly button is welcome, as we take action for all families.
#SaveTPS #FamiliesBelongTogether
Honored to have joined helpers from across the country on Children’s Book Day to kick off the #ReadThemHome campaign in Dilley, TX.
It was a somber moment standing outside the Dilley Detention Center, knowing that children and families are inside. I couldn’t stop thinking about 5-year-old Liam, the 2-month-old baby boy whose health was declining after being there for so long, and all the little ones still detained there. We could only see the facility from beyond the fence. We weren’t allowed inside. We came to witness, and even that felt risky.
Because of what we’ve seen happen before, I came “prepared”: my passport in my jeans pocket and my boss’s phone number written on my arm, just in case. Just in case standing there peacefully, as a witness, could lead to detention.
Nothing happened, except they added another fence, likely after hearing we were coming, and rumors spread that state troopers were on their way. All of that in response to a small group of moms, parents, authors, and advocates who came simply to read children’s books from outside Dilley.
It’s surreal, and deeply troubling, to live in a moment where children are detained. Where, in places like Dilley, they face rotten food, poor-quality water, and a lack of adequate medical care, and where those who speak out risk being detained too.
It’s time to end family detention. Children belong in schools, on playgrounds, and in their homes, not in detention centers.
And now, there are efforts to open an ICE warehouse-style facility in Salt Lake City. We cannot let that happen. Not here. Not in our comunidad. Cruelty will never be the answer.
#EndFamilyDetention
I’ve been thinking about Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo all day.
I’ve also been thinking about my college professor, whose older brother was disappeared by the Argentinian dictatorship, taken from his home, sent to a clandestine detention center, and never seen again. His mother never stopped searching for him.
A few years ago, I took my kids to one of the Thursday marches and met some of the mothers. By chance, I found myself standing close to one of them. I had so many questions, but no words came. Solo un nudo en la garganta.
What do you even say to a mother whose heart was taken, and who has spent a lifetime searching for it, demanding justice? Nothing in any language feels right. Only silence. Only respect.
Today marks 50 years, and remembering matters, so we can recognize injustices disguised as “national security.” Nunca más. Never again.
#floreceranpañuelos #abuelasdeplazademayo
📣📣 Utah, this is NOT who we are! 📣📣
Yesterday, DHS purchased a large warehouse west of Salt Lake City. The facility is intended to become an ICE mega detention center with capacity for 7,500+ individuals.
Our state bears the shame of being home to the Topaz concentration camp, where Japanese Americans were detained during WWII.
We will not allow another concentration camp to operate in our state. Not now. Not ever. ❌🧊
So, how do we stop this? By opposing it in every way we possibly can. And one of those ways that ALL of us can do, TODAY, is to call both your representative and our Utah senators to let them know that having an ICE detention center in our state is unacceptable.
Follow @ducksandclucks@utahoverpassaction for updates and more to come.
#noicecampinutah #FamiliesBelongTogether
Great books to read for anyone following #ShieldOfTheAmericas ! 🥴📚
The current moment in immigration in the United States did not emerge overnight. It’s the result of decades of foreign policies, decisions, and interventions that shaped our home countries, and helped create the realities many parts of Latin America and the Caribbean face today.
Reading becomes urgent when history keeps getting ignored.
Liam is free. He’s home, back with his family, in his own bed, and, hopefully soon, back with his friends at preschool. ❤️
Liam’s face carries so much. It holds the weight of the 3,800 children detained by this government. It reveals the cruelty of a system willing to terrorize children. His face reminds me of the children in my family, children I grew up with, and the children and their families I met at the border, desperately searching for safety. These are kids and families forced to flee countries where violence is constant, because, “no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark,” and because seeking asylum is a human right.
Judge Fred Biery’s decision transcends legal procedure, it confronts head-on what he accurately identifies as “the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.” I was deeply moved by his words. He ended with two simple Bible verses, including one that says: “Jesus wept.” That line is powerful because, for many of us, the Christ we know is defined by compassion.
Today, we celebrate Liam’s freedom. But countless children and families remain in detention, living in horrific conditions. Keep raising your voice. Call your members of Congress. ICE must be removed from our communities, and families must no longer live in fear.
#LiamRamos
His name is Liam. He is five years old. He is being held in a detention center in Texas. When I saw his photo, I thought of my own son at five years old. He carried a superhero backpack to preschool too. And even though he loved his class, the moment I picked him up, he reached for my hand immediately. He needed comfort. Safety. His mama. Like all five years old do. I can’t even imagine what this baby is going through right now. He should be with his family: held close, fed, playing, laughing. Not locked inside a detention facility. Not separated from the people who make him feel safe.
Today on Capitol Hill, I shared Liam’s story with congressional offices. Everyone I spoke with already knew his story. Everyone knows. And still, the House passed a DHS funding bill; with seven Democrats joining Republicans (all but one). That’s 220 members of Congress agreeing to pour even more money into ICE, an agency that already has access to $170 billion without real oversight, while cutting funding from healthcare and other essential programs. This was a choice. Please remember that choice when you vote this November.
And there’s more…. Senator Murphy’s office told me that they were denied entry to inspect detention centers in Texas, despite having the right to do so. If they won’t let a U.S. senator inside, we have to ask ourselves: what are they hiding? And why is a five-year-old there at all? Why is anyone?
What can you do right now: • There’s a GoFundMe link in my bio to support Liam’s family, established by a close family friend. • Text RENEE to (888) 418-5699, and MomsRising will connect you directly to your Senator. Tell your Senator to vote NO on this bill. Cruelty has never been the way.
And to those still saying, “But they should have come legally”… Liam’s attorney says the family has an active asylum case. They did what the law requires. But even beyond legality, this is about something deeper than policy or paperwork. This is about humanity. This is a child.
Please don’t stay quiet. We already crossed a line. This is cruelty, plain and simple. If this doesn’t wake us up, I don’t know what will.
#FreeLiam #LiamConejoRamos
Art by @dreasdoodles
🇻🇪🇭🇹 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard NTPSA vs. Noem, a case that puts the lives and futures of nearly 1 million Venezuelan and Haitian TPS holders (and their families!) on the line. One million people who were legally authorized to live here are now being pushed toward deportation to countries that are not safe. 🚨One million.🚨
As I listened to the Trump administration’s lawyer deliver her arguments and rebuttals, I was impressed (ya no debería impresionarme pero bueno..) by the coldness of it all. Her delivery was detached and entirely divorced from the realities facing immigrant families. When a judge asked about current country conditions in Venezuela, I thought she sidestepped the question. Instead of answering directly, she retreated into dense legal jargon, offering no meaningful response.
Again and again, she hid behind technical language to defend an undeniable truth: this administration simply does not care about Venezuelans, about separating their families or putting their lives in danger. It was unsettling to witness how cruelty can be sanitized and presented as lawful reasoning.
The highlight of my day was meeting H, one of the plaintiffs in this case. She is una venezolana bravely putting her name forward to represent hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans. I asked her how she feels that she’s standing in for so many people, and she told me that she tries not to think about the numbers, because behind each one is a life, a family, a story. There she was, inside that courtroom, facing an oppressive and inhumane government with courage and dignity. She is a hero.
Deeply thankful for the National TPS Alliance, the Haitian Bridge Alliance who are leading this fight, and everyone who refuses silence and continues to defend human rights.
#TPSforVenezuela #TPSforHaiti
This week was my birthday, and I knew exactly where I wanted to be: in my favorite little corner in the middle of the world. 🇪🇨🥳
And the cherry on top? Returning to my alma mater and speaking to students now walking the same paths I once did.
Forever grateful to @uees_ec for inviting me again; and to Guayaquil, for always feeling like home, no matter how much time goes by. 💫✨
