It was the morning of the first day of fifth grade, and as 10-year-old Ariana sat at the kitchen table, arranging the contents of her backpack, one thing was missing.

“Want me to call Mom?” asked her dad, Samuel Wilbanks. She gently nodded.

Ariana’s mother, Lorenza Temaj Jiguan, has been in her native Guatemala since May, when Ariana was wrapping up fourth grade and the family was looking forward to summer break.

Temaj, 34, who entered the U.S. illegally in 2009, had left for what they expected to be a brief visit. She would complete the final steps for a U.S. immigration visa, allowing her to stop living in fear of deportation.

Instead, she has been stuck there ever since.

Read more at the link in our bio.