"With things as they are in this country, it doesn't really feel like freedom anymore, not for the children, and not for us."
That's how Myrna Romero said life in the United States feels for her and her young children, who are American citizens, since the Trump administration's mass deportation push started in 2025.
Romero's partner, Marvin Aguilar-Garcia, was detained by Border Patrol agents after a setup in Upstate New York's North Country in December 2025.
Although the charges filed against Aguilar were eventually dismissed "in the interest of justice," the father and dairy farmer worker was not freed. And now, with his family in hiding, Aguilar has opted to self-deport back to Guatemala, the country he fled in search of a safer life.