Yessenia Ruano, a former Milwaukee Public Schools teacher’s aide, publicly fought her deportation for months in Wisconsin but eventually was forced by ICE to return to El Salvador in June with her 10-year-old twin U.S. citizen daughters.
She and her husband, Miguel, now find themselves living with his mother as they work to restart their lives. Ruano is reconnecting with relatives she hasn’t seen in 14 years. But she’s also trying to figure out how to build a new life from scratch: where to work, where to send her children to school.
Ruano’s children only ever lived in a dense urban neighborhood in Milwaukee. Now, they can pick guavas from trees in the backyard, but they also have to handwash their clothes in basins outdoors.
Ruano’s story challenges the Trump administration assertion that its priority is deporting violent criminals, as she hadn’t committed any crimes, was working legally, and had applied for a trafficking victims’ visa.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Sophie Carson and photojournalist Jovanny Hernandez traveled to El Salvador to report on Ruano's life after deportation.
