Orange is the New Black star Diane Guerrero, described in a Los Angeles Times op-ed published at the weekend how her parents were abruptly removed from her home and deported by immigration agents when she was 14 years old, The Guardian said in a report.
She began recalling how her parents tried to gain their US citizenship and described coming to an "empty" house after school.
"Throughout my childhood I watched my parents try to become legal but to no avail. They lost their money to people they believed to be attorneys, but who ultimately never helped. That meant my childhood was haunted by the fear that they would be deported. If I didn't see anyone when I walked in the door after school, I panicked.
And then one day, my fears were realized. I came home from school to an empty house. Lights were on and dinner had been started, but my family wasn't there. Neighbors broke the news that my parents had been taken away by immigration officers, and just like that, my stable family life was over."
Diane, 28, who was born in New Jersey, is the only legal in her family to reside in the US.
She told CNN that she " broke down and "hid under the bed" because she's afraid thatb someone might come and get her.
"I don't know who that someone was but I was just so scared.", she also added.
After her parents deportation, she said that: "Not a single person at any level of government took any note of me,"
"No one checked to see if I had a place to live or food to eat, and at 14, I found myself basically on my own."
Family friends and her friends took her in until she graduated college but she wrote that ""I was always insecure about being a nuisance and losing my invitation to stay. And, though I was surrounded by people who cared about me, part of me ached with every accomplishment, because my parents weren't there to share my joy."
The Guardian also added that." Guerrero has gone public with her story as President Barack Obama is said to be considering new immigration rules that would do more to prevent families from being separated in deportation cases. The president is expected to take executive action, possibly as early as this week, to defer deportation for parents in the country illegally whose children are US citizens, if the parents have lived in the United States for at least five years and meet other requirements. The proposed changes could affect as many as 5 million immigrants."
