In 1986, U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act. The sweeping immigration legislation granted residency in the country for undocumented immigrants. 

Two years later, Juana Flores arrived in the U.S. across the border and settled in Goleta, California.

Flores and her husband, Andres, a permanent U.S. resident since 2009, then did what most immigrants who start a new life in the U.S. do, and raised a big family.

Ten grandchildren and 18 grandchildren later, Juana was barred from returning to the U.S. during the Trump administration after she went to visit her sick mother in Mexico.

One of her children, Cesar, became a U.S. Air Force Sergeant. 

He and his mom are the inspiration for California Rep. Salud Carbajal’s Protect Patriot Parents Act.

An army veteran himself, Carbajal first introduced the bill that would grant permanent U.S. residency to the immigrant parents of U.S. service members in 2019.

The bill would cover family of current service members and veterans who were honorably discharged.

In the case of the Floreses, it would allow Juana to return to the U.S. and reunite with a family that hasn’t seen her in two years. In that time, Cesar has had a child and could potentially be deployed to Turkey before he can see his mom again.

The first effort for the bill failed to gain traction and was unsuccessful. Carbajal pits the failure on a Republican-steered Congress and a presidential administration with a targeted ire towards immigrants, especially those from south of the border.

“It’s no secret that for the last four years immigrants have been under attack,” said Carbajal at a Zoom meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 26, where he reintroduced the Protect Patriot Parents Act. 

Also on the call were Juana, Cesar, and the lawyers who have worked for the past two years to bring Juana back stateside.

“We know the family is suffering, and suffering on a daily basis,” said Frank Ochoa, a retired Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge and one of the lawyers on Juana’s case.

For her, the experience back in Mexico is one of isolation.

“I don’t have friends,” said Juana. “I only have people that I kind of know.”

She also mentioned how Mexico is much more dangerous now than the one she left in 1988.

Despite the situation, Carbajal has hopes that given the Democratic Biden administration and a Democrat-controlled Congress, his bill has a genuine path to being passed, and soon.

“The Flores family deserves our respect for their sacrifice, not deportation,” he said.