Local group helps families affected by immigration crisis at border

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The immigration crisis at the border is affecting families in the Carolinas, and Channel 9 spoke to a group caring for children separated from their parents.

Maura Trejo, an immigrant, crossed the border with her 7- and 8-year-old daughters 20 years ago.

“I just came here to the dream that I just had to get something for my daughters,” Trejo said.

Trejo owns a pizza restaurant in east Charlotte and is thinking about opening another someday, but she's still haunted by the images from the border of children taken from their parents and put in detention centers.

“Yesterday, I was crying,” Trejo said. “I was crying because I just saw the news. I just saw that and said, ‘We need to do something.’”

Many in Charlotte's Latino community quietly share her heartbreak, but they're not willing to speak up because they don't want to make waves.

“Everybody feels afraid,” said Ana Carpio, with United National Hispanic Alliance.

Carpio helps Hispanic families navigate the immigration process and said the problem isn't new.

“The system of immigration is broken,” Carpio said. “We need immigration reform.”

The Trump administration reversed its policy Wednesday of taking children from parents, but Trejo said that's not enough.

“And we talk about the damage that is happening here right now in this country, and really, I don't understand why,” Trejo said.

Cox Media Group