Hector Reyes parked his truck in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez, his phone lit up with photos and videos of his son Daniel receiving his high school diploma.
The ceremony was taking place just a mile away in El Paso. But Mr. Reyes was deported in 2017 and banned from entering the United States for 20 years for crossing the border illegally twice.
His wife and two children, all American citizens, have made a life in El Paso, while Mr. Reyes lives eight blocks from the border. He recalled looking up at the sky on graduation night in May, waiting to see the fireworks that marked the end of his son’s high school years.
“This life,” he said, “I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”
Families like Mr. Reyes are seeing a new one up close Biden administration policy Its purpose is to provide a path to citizenship for undocumented spouses of US citizens. Although the initial program was not open to people living outside the country, the families said it was the first sign that there was an openness to rethinking their plight. Deported spouses considered it a long shot, but perhaps their only chance to overcome a lifetime or decades-long ban on coming to the United States.
But the new program quickly met with Republican opposition and was blocked by a federal judge in Texas. 16 states sued to block it. Former President Donald J. With Trump threatening mass deportations if he regains the presidency in November, the families could not only lose their bid for consideration but could see many more join their ranks.
Some of the most common reasons for deportation and entry bans include entering the United States without authorization, returning after deportation, overstaying a visa, working without permission or committing a crime, said Jorge Lowery, managing director of programs. American Immigration CouncilAn advocacy group for immigrants.
In interviews, couples made extraordinary efforts to maintain their relationships and described the difficult decisions they faced to follow an exiled spouse abroad or to seek higher-paying jobs, educational opportunities, and reform in the United States. Safety and security.
“We should be talking about family unity, not family unity for some people,” said Tran Dang, founder and director of the organization. Rhizome Center for MigrantsA legal clinic that provides services to deportees and their families.
A broad range of stakeholders, from business leaders to immigrant advocates, have been calling for changes to immigration laws for decades, long before the border surge in recent years. But an increasingly polarized Congress has failed to reach a consensus, leaving the country with an outdated, dysfunctional system.
Following changes in asylum policy, the number of migrants crossing illegally has declined in recent months Introduced by the Biden administration in June. But the border is a key issue for Republicans on the campaign trail.
“Until we resolve the crisis on our southern border, there’s nothing else we can do,” said Republican strategist and managing partner John Thomas. Nestpoint Associates. “We can clean up the rest of the system later.”
There is no reliable data on how many American citizens have been deported, but immigrant advocates estimate the number to be in the thousands.
For most couples in this situation, straddling the border is not an option. Many American partners have to decide whether to move abroad permanently or live away from their spouse. Inevitably, some relationships do not survive the challenge and end in divorce.
When Dr. When Regina Cano married Juan Manuel Cano de la Cruz in 2011, their plan was to live near her family in Cincinnati while she completed her residency in family medicine.
But after Mr. Cano de la Cruz, a Mexican citizen who had been living in the United States without authorization, applied for his green card at the US consulate in Juarez in 2013, an official not only denied his application but also permanently barred him from entry. . United States. The reason, Mr. Cano de la Cruz said, was that he sent money to his father and brother, which was seen as funding illegal immigration because they later crossed the southern border without authorization.
“I didn’t know it was against the law,” he said of sending the money. “It’s frustrated me for years.”
For Canos, their solution is to live together in Guadalajara, where they now have two sons, a 7-year-old and a 6-month-old.
“My husband told me to stay and earn money,” said Dr. Cano recalled. “I was separated from him for two years, and I don’t want to live like that anymore.”
Now, Dr. Cano and her sons travel to Ohio several times a year so the children can visit their American grandparents and cousins, and she can earn extra money covering shifts for other doctors on maternity leave or vacation.
Like many families, the most difficult decisions for these couples center on what will be best for their children.
At first, Laura Araujo thought the most viable option was to move to the Mexican city of Toluca with her three children after her husband’s green card application was denied in 2017. (He crossed the border illegally twice.) Mrs. Araujo and her husband, Alberto Araujo Rodriguez, raised those children in Mexico for five years and had two more children.
“We didn’t necessarily have to move for a better life,” she said of the move. “We were moving to be together.”
In 2022, the couple decided it was best for Mrs. Araujo and the children to move back to Maryland for the children’s education.
“I came back to the house we lived in together and his ghost was everywhere,” Ms. Araujo said. “At the end of the day, I’m sitting there alone. I don’t have my husband.”
Mr. Araujo Rodriguez now has a Canadian work permit and works on a dairy farm in Newfoundland to better support his family.
“I hope that these sad tears will turn into happy ones one day,” Mr. Araujo Rodriguez said of a recent trip he took to visit Canada. “It breaks my heart when I see my children like this. They need their father.
Cassandra Holguin, whose fiance entered the country illegally and was recently deported to Mexico, is still trying to come to terms with what happened and how they will raise their son, Milo, who turns 2 this week. .
In May, about a month after her fiancé, Francisco Javier Gamino Jaramillo, was deported, Ms. Holguin took Milo to Guanajuato so he could see his father. On their last night before returning to Texas, Mr. Gamino Jaramillo begged her to stay.
“Please don’t leave me,” he told her in Spanish. “I don’t want to be here alone. I won’t.”
Mrs. Holguin was concerned for her fiancé’s well-being, so she decided to temporarily leave Milo behind with her while she returned to Texas to care for her three older children. She said she cried for the next two weeks and lost 43 pounds from not eating.
“It feels like I’m living a dream every day,” she said.
In Juarez, Mr. Reyes faces a minimum of 13 years before he can re-enter the United States. Her children will be in their 30s by then.
“He’s a good citizen,” said Sandra Reyes, Mr. Reyes’ wife. “We had good money, we had our own house, we had a car. We have not asked a single penny from the government.
“Like, it wasn’t enough,” she added.
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