A family in Long Beach said it has left the home and community behind as it feared the Trump administration’s immigration policies would eventually catch up with its family member.
The Burgueno family, made up of a U.S. citizen matriarch, her undocumented husband and their teenage son, said Monday that it has taken the final steps to self-deport.
“We crossed the border in Otay,” Sonia Burgueno told NBC Los Angeles at the U.S.-Mexico border Monday. “We packed as much as we could.”
Calling it the hardest decision her family has ever made, Sonia Burgueno had deep roots in Long Beach: she and her husband built Franks Landscaping together from the ground up, serving the same community in which they raised their family.
“We had our business for over 20 years. Our clients were like family,” the matriarch said.
But Burgueno said fear took over their lives for the last few months as her husband, an undocumented immigration with no criminal record, began to feel watched and followed.
“He came home crying and said, ‘I’m not a criminal. I don’t want to live like this anymore.’”
Rather than waiting for a knock at the door, the family chose to leave on its own terms after selling its business, pulling the teenage son out of high school and eventually moving to Sinaloa, the hometown of Francisco Burgueno, Sonia’s husband.
“Living in fear isn’t living at all,” Francisco Burgueno told NBCLA in Spanish.
Although leaving Long Beach meant Sonia Burgueno had to say goodbye to her elderly mother and extended family (all U.S. citizens), she said dignity mattered more than geography.
“He did not want his dignity to be taken away. He’s not a criminal,” the wife said about her husband in Spanish.
The family has started over with limited savings and a lot of uncertainty. Friends and relatives have launched a fundraising effort to cover moving costs and repairs to a home in Mexico.
“What matters most is that we are staying together,” Francisco Burgueno said.
The family said the move is an ending and a new beginning.
“You can build a good life anywhere as long as you do it with love,” Sonia Burgueno said.
