Hiding in plain sight: Immigrants struggle to navigate a changing political reality

By Alexandra Villarreal

Blood red blemishes stretched across Maria’s cheeks. The rosacea had appeared months earlier, around the 2016 election, and it would not leave. When she visited the doctor, she was told that stress had caused the violent sores bubbling from her skin.

It was not her work that brought Maria so much anxiety, nor was it home life. The mundane had little pull on her now as she planned for what seemed a looming possibility: Forced separation from her two children, both of whom are American citizens.