Julie Ear and her family endured an arduous journey to Tijuana International Airport, which is situated just south of the U.S.-Mexico border, as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement intensified raids in Los Angeles in recent weeks.
Regina Higuera, Ear’s mother, had resided in the United States for 36 years. However, on this particular morning in early June, she departed from her residence, her children, and her grandchildren, all of whom are U.S. citizens, and returned to her birthplace in Mexico.
“When the ICE raids started picking up on other states, we knew that we were going to get hit eventually,” Ear told CBS News. “Nobody’s safe.”
According to internal government data obtained by CBS News, ICE has apprehended over 100,000 individuals since the commencement of President Trump’s second term in early June. Additionally, the Trump administration has promoted the self-deportation of undocumented migrants. It announced last month that it would provide free airline tickets and a $1,000 incentive to certain migrants who voluntarily departed the United States and returned to their home countries.
According to Ear, her mother elected to self-deport in order to “ensure that she was in control of her life.”
“She didn’t like the uncertainty of somebody coming into her house, or her job, or being pulled over, and just telling her, ‘Oh, now you’re in Mexico,'” Ear said of her mother.
Ear stated that Higuera had unlawfully entered the United States at the age of 15 and immediately began working in the garment factories of Los Angeles. She had intended to remain for a brief period, accumulate sufficient funds, and subsequently return to Mexico. However, she later married and began a family.
“She’s been contributing to the economy, paying taxes every year,” Ear said. “There’s no benefit for being undocumented, they don’t get benefits. She’s not going to get a pension. She doesn’t have a 401(k). She never got food stamps. She didn’t get welfare. People want to come here to work. And, you know, it’s not illegal to want to work.”
Higuera, who has recently reunited with her mother in Guerrero, Mexico, has noted that virtually everything outside of her new home is unfamiliar.
“I am content because I am no longer anxious,” Higuera stated to CBS News from her new residence in Mexico, regarding her decision to depart the United States. “Nevertheless, there are occasions when I am overcome with melancholy as I contemplate the entirety of her family.”
Her children are now continuing the improved life she worked to establish in the United States.
“That’s why I have such a strong daughter,” Higuera said of Ear. “From a very young age, I taught her, we have to be strong no matter what situation that we find ourselves in.”
Ear stated that she communicates with her mother on a daily basis through text messages and phone calls.
“Sometimes I forget that she’s so far because we talk so much,” Ear said. “But then that is when the family thing happens, that’s when I’m like, ‘Oh my God, you’re actually gone. You’re not actually here.”
