This story is the final installment of “No Way Back, No Clear Path Forward: A Family’s Fight for Stability in an Uncertain America,” a three-part series examining how undocumented immigrants in Merced County are bracing for potential policy shifts, through the eyes of a local couple, Oscar and Dania.
The series explores their legal limbo, fears of deportation, and the fragile protections that shape their futures.To protect their safety, Oscar and Dania are identified by first names only. Click here to read Part 1 of the series. Click here to read the second installment.
Oscar risked everything to build a new life in the U.S. in 2009, but his first week here delivered a stark reminder of how his life could be upended.
While traveling with his parents in San Jose, traffic suddenly slowed to a crawl, funneling vehicles straight into a law enforcement traffic stop.
Oscar was nervous, fearing the officers would stop the vehicle and ask about his immigration status.
“En la salida de una calle en San José … íbamos saliendo y me acuerdo que había mucho tráfico – It was an exit for street in San Jose … we were exiting and I remember there was a lot of traffic,” Oscar said in Spanish remembering the tense moment.
One by one, cars inched forward, their occupants bracing for the moment they’d face the scrutiny of officers. “When it was almost our turn, traffic began moving through without stopping,” he said.
Luck was on his side that day, and he has since avoided immigration’s radar by following the rules: working, paying taxes, and staying out of trouble.
“I feel safe in the sense that I haven’t committed any crimes or done anything that would justify being removed, other than how I entered,” Oscar said. “I want to believe I’m a good person; I’ve done nothing illegal. I follow the rules, pay my taxes, and do everything right.”
But even that quiet compliance carries new risks under a recent federal agreement; the IRS is now sharing certain tax information with immigration authorities, casting a shadow over the very system Oscar once trusted to keep him safe.
He, like many undocumented migrants in the San Joaquin Valley, lives with the fear of being uprooted as mass deportations and executive orders threaten their future.
Patrick Kolasinski, principal attorney at Kolasinski Law in Modesto, has practiced immigration and defense law for 15 years.
He said the current climate reinforces migrants’ fears but urges them to learn their rights and avoid actions that could escalate the situation.
“What we need not to do is make that fear bigger,” said Kolasinski. “There is so much rumor-mongering and fear causing within the community. One of the officers I was talking to recently said the community is hurting itself more than they ever could.”
Waiting for an answer
For 14 years, Dania, Oscar’s wife, has been trapped in a bureaucratic maze as her asylum case has been stalled by delays that have left her future and their family’s stability in question.
That unresolved status weighs heavily on her entire family, especially her 13-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen who lives in constant fear of what will happen if her mother’s case is denied.
“She’s always anxious,” Dania said. “She asks, ‘Mom, what if they don’t approve you? What if they detain you? They’ll send you to Mexico, and then they’ll take away my citizenship.’ That fear is always hanging over us.”
Being caught in a gray area, UC Merced Associate Professor Ma Vang said, can create additional challenges for children and their parents, who live in constant fear of deportation.
“Prolonged legal uncertainty produces trauma and stress for families due to fear of separation, especially families with mixed status,” said Vang. “Prolonged legal uncertainty can also be a social stigma that affects parents and children’s efforts to live with dignity and without fear”
Kolasinski explained that there are three categories of asylum applicants, one of which is people like Dania, who entered the country explicitly intending to seek asylum.
“These are the ones that get all the attention,” he said. “They’re required to file for asylum within one year of an entry into the United States. Most of them are put into immigration court and processed fairly rapidly. By and large, those cases do not take 14 years.”
The other two types of asylum seekers, Kolasinski explained, are defensive asylum seekers, who request protection after being detained by immigration due to potential dangers in their home countries, and affirmative asylum seekers, who apply after living undocumented in the U.S. for some time.
For most cases, Kolasinski said, asylum seekers see an immigration judge for a merits hearing, also known as an individual hearing.
“That’s where the judge decides the asylum application,” he said. “If they’re approved. They will get asylum. They have to stay in asylum status for a year. Then they can apply to become a (permanent) resident.”
He speculated that something unusual, such as changing courts, may have caused the delays in Dania’s case, who has not yet seen a judge to solidify her asylum status.
For Oscar, who spends every day watching the door and the news simultaneously, these legal nuances aren’t abstract. They are the difference between staying and vanishing.
However, those delays may carry a silver lining as Oscar may be eligible to obtain documented status when Dania has her merits hearing.
“If the couple is married at the time her application for asylum is approved, then yes, there’s options to bring along the spouse,” Kolasinski said, as current law allows spouses to be added to an asylum application if they were married before the status was approved.
“If they are not, then generally speaking, no, we have to wait for her to become a permanent resident and then bring him through that way if he’s helped. That’s a broad overstatement, but it works for most people.”
Dania, who has been working with an immigration attorney in the Bay Area, said she has spent over $10,000 on her case, yet each time she checks in, her attorney informs her that it has been delayed once again.
Living by the rules, still at risk
Following state and municipal laws isn’t enough to erase the anxiety of living without documents.
“That feeling will never go away until I have legal status,” said Oscar.
Dania and Oscar are arming themselves with knowledge, determined to stay vigilant for whatever the future may bring.
“I like to not focus on all the bad things but rather inform myself about what to do in case something happens,” Oscar said. “I also try to avoid raising suspicion about my status. If I don’t talk to everyone about it, then they won’t know.”
For Kolasinski, what to do in case of a raid is simple: don’t make immigration officers’ job easier.
“If you are undocumented and you’re worried about immigration picking you up, the best piece of advice is don’t carry anything on you that proves that you’re undocumented,” he said. “If immigration doesn’t know that you’re not a citizen and doesn’t know what country to send you to, don’t tell them.”
If detained, Kolasinski advised that the first step is to determine where they are being held and ask about their alien number, which is assigned when immigration officers process them into the system.
Anyone detained by immigration authorities should then contact their family, provide their location and alien number, and request that the family call an attorney for legal assistance.
If called to assist, Kolasinski said he could jump in his car if a detention facility is within a reasonable distance from his office and help in person.
“There’s amazing things we can do in person that really depend on the case,” he said. “Based on what the person’s facts are, I may be able to negotiate a release on the spot.”
That immediate support, which can cost anywhere from $500 to $1,500, can make a crucial difference for those facing detention.
For families like Oscar and Dania’s, free legal services are available; however, being able to access them often means navigating yet another layer of bureaucracy.
Free legal services in California
In California, undocumented migrants and asylum seekers can be eligible for free legal services funded through the state.
The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Immigration Services Bureau funds nonprofit organizations across the state to provide pro bono immigration legal services, education, and community outreach.
These programs focus on expanding access in historically underserved regions and include legal assistance on California State University and community college campuses.
In addition to legal support, CDSS also funds emergency programs and immigrant equity initiatives to help families respond to sudden changes in immigration policy or enforcement.
These services are designed to assist individuals like Oscar and Dania who are navigating the immigration system without legal status or waiting on long-delayed asylum cases by connecting them to trusted legal providers at no cost.
More information about these programs can be found at the Immigration Services Bureau Programs page.
Planning for what lies ahead
Oscar and Dania brace for the next four years as the new administration takes shape
“There’s no grand plan,” Oscar admitted. “We’ve talked about it, but we’re not doing anything drastic. It’s just like last time — waiting, watching, hoping for the best.”
Even as she tries to shield her daughters from fear, Dania knows that uncertainty looms over their lives. She forces a smile, reassuring them that everything will be fine, even when she’s not sure herself.
“It’s difficult because if you’re afraid, how can you expect your children not to be?” she said. “But I try to put on a brave face for them. They don’t need to carry that fear, even though everything we’ve been through hasn’t been easy.”
Even the home they were eventually able to purchase, the place where memories and plans for the future were forged, doesn’t feel untouchable. The uncertainty exacts a silent question mark over everything they’ve worked for.
“Right now, we have our home,” Oscar said. “But what if one day the president decides that people without papers don’t have a right to anything in this country and they take it away from us?”
Having some protection but no benefits
Though Dania’s status allows her to work legally and access better job opportunities, it also has limitations — chief among them is being unable to travel to Mexico and back.
“They say they can give you permission to go back in extreme cases, but it’s not really true,” she said. “My father and brother both had cancer, and I couldn’t go see them.”
Her father and brother stayed behind in Mexico. When they fell ill with cancer, she faced an impossible choice – return and risk never coming back, or stay and miss their final moments.
“Me dijeron, sí te podemos dar un permiso, pero ya no puedes volver – they told me they could give me a permit, but I wouldn’t be able to come back,” she said in Spanish. “My dad told me, ‘Mija, don’t come. We don’t want you to lose everything. The only thing I want is to be able to go back to cry at my father and brother’s graves.”
Oscar sometimes wonders what it would be like if he were forced to return and had no choice but to stay.
“I’ve never worked there, never really lived as an adult in Mexico,” he said. “I wouldn’t even know what steps to take, who to turn to.”
In Mexico, the administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum announced the far-reaching plan, Mexico te abraza – Mexico embraces you, to welcome Mexican nationals who were removed from the U.S. or who decided to leave on their own to receive assistance.
The country he left behind more than a decade ago has changed, and so has he.
“People don’t think about when you’ve been gone 14, 15 years, the city, the neighborhood, everything is different,” he said. “You don’t really know what you’re walking back into.”
Still, if it were on his terms, he wouldn’t mind going back on holiday.
“To live there? No,” Oscar said. “But to go back, just to visit, yes.”
One thing will always pull at him to visit his old hometown, which he hasn’t visited in more than 16 years.
“The food,” he said with a small laugh. “The food, definitely.”
