People With No Names-The Undocumented #96

     For those of you who read this I am sorry to have been MIA for months!  I have been caring for a daughter recovering from surgery and studying Spanish!  I am also trying to get a book together...to document the first two years of immigrant paintings.  This is me, in my studio, with photos of every single one of the 120 immigrant paintings that I have done in the past two years.
     Yesterday I had the privilege of accompanying a woman up to Portland to meet with ICE (immigration and customs enforcement) officials.  She has applied for a two year grace period to remain in this country while her case is being sorted out.  She is one of many immigrants,  who were brought to this country as children and raised here.  She graduated with honors from her high school and even won two college scholarships.  Unfortunately, shortly after she began at the university (where she was having academic success and loving it) she was asked to leave because of her immigration status.  For ten years she has been longing to return to her studies.  Yesterday, with fingerprints and a retinal scan she came a step closer to realizing her dream:  legal status and university studies.  Before we left (early in the dark morning to make the two hour drive to Portland), she wrote letters to various family members to bid them good-by and reaffirm her love for them in the event that she didn't return yesterday...but instead became the latest deportee.  Needless to say, we left the ICE office building in celebratory spirits and even stopped on our drive home for a giant, Mexican lunch (to celebrate her hope and dream of one day becoming a documented/legal citizen of the United States!)