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The Sunday Read: ‘The Alienation of Jaime Cachua’

The Sunday Read: ‘The Alienation of Jaime Cachua’

The Daily vor 1 Jahr

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29:34

His wife was spiraling into insomnia, and his children were
afraid to go to school, so Jaime Cachua sought out the person he
trusted most in a crisis. He sat at his kitchen table in rural
Georgia across from his father-in-law, Sky Atkins, the family
patriarch. Jaime, 33, hadn’t seen his own father since he was 10
months old, when he left Mexico in a car seat bound for the
United States.

“We have to prepare for the worst-case scenario,” Jaime told him.
“There’s a chance we could lose everything.”

Jaime muted the football game on TV and began to explain his new
reality as an undocumented immigrant after the election of Donald
Trump, who had won the presidency in part by promising to deport
more than 11 million people living in the country illegally.

“I’m going to be straight with you,” Sky told Jaime. “I voted for
Trump. I believe in a lot of what he says.”

“I figured as much,” Jaime said. “You and just about everyone
else around here.”

“It’s about protecting our rights as a sovereign country,” Sky
said. “We need to shut down the infiltration on the border. It’s
not about you.”

“It is about me,” Jaime said. “That’s the thing I don’t
understand.”

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