Margaret O'Donnell 2011©Some immigration stories involve unbelievable abuse, including violence against children. One story in particular is especially gut-wrenching. Aime and her daughter Sara, the subjects of this story, show immense courage. Aime survived horrific abuse and lived to become a loving woman, despite it. May it be true for her daughter.
Aime Cruz was born and raised in Bolivia. Aime Cruz’s father raped her repeatedly from the time she was 10 until she was 14. He only stopped because she ran away from home. There was nothing to do about it; the whole family was terrified of her father. There were no social services in Bolivia, and no 911; no one to inform, no one to stop him.
Aime found a boyfriend at age 15 and had two children with him by the time she was 18. He beat her, but she didn’t know how to provide for herself or the kids without him. She couldn’t go back to her family; her father said he’d kill her for running away.
Her boyfriend got more violent when he couldn’t get enough money for drugs; that happened more and more frequently. He threw her son, age 1, on the floor; the baby was on his father’s side of the bed. When Aime scolded him and tried to pick up the baby, he slugged her and broke her jaw. The next day, while he was out, Aime took both children and a few clothes, and went to the only place she could think of for help: a women’s jail near her apartment.
The warden took pity on her and gave her a cell and food, and called the jail’s doctor to treat her jaw. The doctor found Aime a temporary shelter at a Maryknoll mission school, where she helped with the cooking and cleaning for a few weeks. Aime mad a good impression on a school benefactor who learned her story and asked how she could help her. Instead of asking for work in the benefactor’s household, Aime surprised herself by asking for an air ticket to Tijuana, and help to get a Mexican visa. The kids were young enough to sit on her lap. And the benefactor surprised herself as well, by agreeing.
Aime got the visa, and arrived in Tijuana with the phone number of the Maryknoll mission there. She stayed a few months, cooking and cleaning for her keep. When she was ready, when she felt she knew enough, she walked over the border, without a coyote’s (smuggler’s) help, and was not caught.
She was 20 years old then, and strong. She found a shelter in San Diego, learned that she could get fish processing work in Seattle, and cadged a bus ticket from San Diego to Seattle. She arrived, very hungry and the kids even hungrier, and walked in downtown Seattle until she found a women’s shelter for the homeless. That very night, a volunteer took her to a women and children’s shelter.
She didn’t stay long at the shelter. She got a job at a fish processing plant, and within three months had an apartment in a heavily Hispanic complex in Burien, with a neighbor to watch her children.
After a few years, when the kids were in school, she met a co-worker, Kerry, a U.S. citizen, and moved in with him. He was a gentle man, she thought, and he took care of the kids when she was working at night in her new housecleaning business. She was saving money for a house, and worked nearly 14 hours a day.
In the evenings, though, before Aime came home at 11 pm, Kerry was raping 9-year-old Sara, nearly every night. “Stay quiet”, Kerry told her. “Remember if you say anything, I’ll have to call immigration and report that your mom is here illegal.” Sara kept quiet for nearly a year, until she got a severe bladder infection and her mother took her to a doctor. The doctor discovered the sexual abuse.
Sara screamed that the doctor could not tell anyone because her mother would be deported. Aime told her daughter, “It’s okay, Chica. If I’m deported, I will come back. I’ll never leave you alone.”
Aime took her daughter to a shelter, at the clinic’s suggestion, and then went to get her son from school. From the shelter, she made the call to the police. Kerry was arrested that night. He was charged with three counts of first-degree child molestation, found guilty, and sentenced to twenty-four years in prison.
After she made the call, Aime waited for Immigration to pick her up, but that didn’t happen. Shelter staff told her that she should see an immigration attorney. She did, and learned that she could apply for a visa to allow her and her children to stay in the U.S. The U visa is available to the undocumented who can prove they are victims of serious crime, and have helped the police or prosecutor in the investigation or prosecution of the crime.
Today, she has the U Visa, as do her children. In a few years, they can apply for legal residence. They do have the house Aime was saving for. Sara is still in therapy.
