Tijuana, Mexico
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Estelle Morales lived in the United States for about 20 years. Despite being deported several times, she repeatedly returned illegally for the chance of an American dream.
Her ninth deportation in 2009 will be her last. Unable to return to the US due to stricter enforcement, she became Tijuana and decided to stay.
“It was so sad that my daughter is back in the US… So, the separation of her family clearly had a big impact on me,” she told CNN.
Although it was difficult, Morales had to accept that Tijuana was her new home and that the only way to make the most of it was to move forward.
Almost 16 years later, Morales, originally from Oaxaca, Mexico, established herself in a border city of 2 million people as one of the region’s most prominent activists, and now runs a non-governmental organization that supports immigrants like her.
Jean Bernaud Gelin learned a similar lesson after leaving his home to Haiti and travelling 5,000 miles across 10 countries.
After initially trying to settle in Chile, Jerin set out for the United States, hoping that President Barack Obama’s immigration policy would open a new door for him. By the time he reached the US-Mexican border, Donald Trump had become president and one of Jellyn’s cousins had been deported.
Fearing that he would suffer the same fate, Jerin abandons his ambition to reach America and decides to stay in Mexicali, the Mexican border city.
“There are opportunities everywhere,” he said, adding that finding them is a matter of patience and adaptation to a new situation.
Meanwhile, Daniel Lewis felt American for all practical purposes. Born in Mexico, Lewis was taken to the US without documents by his mother when he was just a baby. He grew up in the United States, where he went to school and learned life lessons that transformed him into what he is today.
“I watched American television. I grew up in American culture. Basically, I felt like an American citizen,” Lewis said in English, speaking to the Southern California dialect.
That happy picture was crushed about 24 years ago due to the mistakes in life that Lewis regrets today.
He was caught on a boat with a load of marijuana, but he says he was planning to sell it to a friend.
“I did something that broke the law. I understood that. (But) I didn’t realize the consequences of being deported. It never crossed my mind,” he told CNN.
He served in prison for three years and was then sent to Tijuana, the city where he stayed like a baby, but he was never truly connected.
It wasn’t an easy transition, but he had few options. After doing various jobs to earn a living, he was hired at a call center, climbed the road to management and started his own business.
Just as millions of immigrants have been deported and rejected over the years, including thousands of people who have been removed since Trump returned to the White House, Morales, Jerine and Lewis have all been forced to abandon their American dreams. But like many others, they have found new dreams to pursue in places they most expect.
For Morales, that dream was in Tijuana.
“It hurts so much what happened to me, but I wasn’t going to keep crying, crying, crying,” she said. “I’ve started working. I work, work, work, work.”
She knew she was a good cook, so that’s what she focused on.
She set up a restaurant in the heart of the city and served homegrown food, from traditional tamales to drink Chanrad. She also began to feed immigrants at shelters.
“I was in the shelter when I was deported. So I know all the needs of immigrants. I was in the shelter where I had no food. Freshwater, nothing.
She created an organization called Proyecto Comida California (Warm Food Project).
“People bring in rice bags, bean bags, second-hand clothes and I distribute everything to one or two shelters a week,” she said.
Her venture has fed thousands of people over the years and has been recognized worldwide. Newspapers all over the world, from Mexico to Russia, told her stories, she said, showing off murals in her organization with newspaper clippings and awards.
She recalled that when Trump effectively shut down the US to asylum seekers waiting at the border, many of them sought inspiration from her and gathered behind the mantra she had created.
“There are dreams on this side too,” she often says, reminding immigrants that Mexico could also become a place of opportunity.
Due to the country’s political and economic instability, Jerin decided to leave Haiti nearly 10 years before graduating from high school. Initially he settled in Chile. Chile was a place with a completely different language from his hometown Creole, with an unfamiliar lifestyle and tradition.
“I never saw monthly rent. In Haiti, rent is one year or at least six months. So in Chile, I started living a new lifestyle I’ve never seen before,” he told CNN.
He eventually found a job, but his prospects for a better life were limited. He had to work 12 hours a day to communicate. So he decided to move to the United States.
When that plan didn’t work, he decided to stay in Mexicali instead.
He realized that border cities, the economic and cultural hub of Baja, California, also need to provide much from education to employment prospects.
There he learned the local language. Although it was a struggle at first, I eventually read Spanish literature and became friends with a local Spanish speaker.
He also sought education from the Autonomous University of Baja California, one of the top 10 schools in the country. However, passing the entrance exam was difficult. He had to study for a few weeks while he was still learning Spanish.
After several attempts, he passed the exam with a high mark, became the first Haitian to register with the university, spoke in fluent Spanish and spoke to CNN.
By the second semester he was working as a private tutor, with other students helping with admission exams and mathematics.
He quickly became recognized as a trusted instructor and launched his own personal tutoring business. He also started ventures for other entrepreneurs, from buying franchises that hated local beer to becoming a stock market trader on the holidays.
There was also a personal victory. “I found a girl, we became a couple, and now we have a daughter,” he said.
Now, Jerin wants to pay back the community for what he considers his fortune by inspiring others.
“If someone has the mentality to grow and achieve their goals, it doesn’t matter where it is, you’ll do that,” he said.
He also faced a culture shock when Lewis was sent back to Tijuana.
“When I arrived in Mexico, I didn’t know about this culture, so it was very different.
He said his Spanish was “bad” at the time, and he experienced some silly hints from Tijuana residents who had the disadvantage of exiles, especially those who were struggling with the law.
It wasn’t an easy transition, Lewis had to do multiple jobs just to achieve his goals.
However, he had a breakthrough when he was hired at a call center. There, he earned a stable income and went on the road to management.
There, after his stint, he and his colleagues set up their own call centre, employing fellow deporters. Many of them were also English speakers.
“I was able to talk to people and have relationships with them and get their stories… Everyone felt better for each other. It was a really great environment,” he said.
Lewis later established a new call center where he continued to hire exiles and gave them the opportunity to rebuild their lives.
In 2018, when Tijuana saw a huge influx of immigrants from Haiti, Lewis led a grassroots effort to provide shelter and legal support to dozens of asylum seekers.
From there he founded a nonprofit organization called the Borderline Crisis Center. The organization now provides shelter, food and resources to women and children who have been deported or fled from other countries or cities to start newcomers.
Now he’s organising what he said, this is the city’s first large concert this December bringing together members of various call centers, artists and communities.
“What I’m trying to do is unite the Deporty community,” he said. “What’s very special to us is our stories. Our stories are pretty much the same.”
