San Jose woman shares story of perseverance after mother's deportation, ICE uncertainty
"All they have is clothes and a dream, and my parents were those people"
SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- Making good on campaign promises, families across the United States are being split-up due to deportations from the federal government.
It's a heartbreaking situation for many, but a San Jose woman knows it does not have to be the end of the story and hopes others can learn the same.
Fear is at an all-time high for many immigrant families - fear of the unknown, fear of losing family and fear of deportation.
It's a feeling that hits home for San Jose's Hali Ayala Mejia.
"I don't believe families should be separated and as a Mexican American, I feel strongly impacted," Ayala Mejia said. "A lot of Mexican immigrants sometimes don't have family in the United States. All they have is clothes and a dream, and my parents were those people."
What started as a dream became a nightmare starting when Ayala Mejia was just 8 years old.
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Her mother was deported to Mexico, leaving her father as the lone parent to Ayala Mejia and her younger sister.
In 2022, when Ayala Mejia was just 16, he died from complications with the COVID vaccine.
"How challenging has that been to lose both parents in that respect?" ABC7 News reporter Dustin Dorsey asked.
"Hard, but I think I became harder," Ayala Mejia said. "I knew that I was the one responsible for my future. I could not change my past."
After bouncing around the foster care system, the SoCal native made her way to San Jose.
Here, Ayala Mejia was connected with services specifically for foster youth so she could finally stand on her own two feet.
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"What does it mean to have a place of your own?" Dorsey asked.
"To have a place of my own means stability, means comfort, means peace," Ayala Mejia said. "I'm just so thankful for Jamboree and the Bill Wilson Center. I'm also thankful to my social worker."
Now, both Ayala Mejia and her sister are on full-ride scholarships to Dartmouth and Stanford respectively.
It's a story she hopes can inspire others who may end up in a similar situation.
"I was told by various people that I wasn't going to be anything, that I was just going to be another statistic in the foster care system," Ayala Mejia said. "And I told them, 'that's not going to happen to me. I'm smart, I'm strong, and I'm going to show you - and I did. And make my parents proud. They didn't cross the border for nothing and they didn't decide to have children here in the United States for nothing."
Now 21, She knows her parents would be proud because when life got tough, she got tougher.
