The Frustration of Being Illegal

At the time ages 3 through 11, the girls were arrested by U.S. authorities after crossing the border. Llanes left their youngest, born in Manassas, with her husband and boarded her first plane.

Two days before Thanksgiving 2005, Llanes sat nervously in a waiting room of an immigration office in Phoenix. Suddenly agents surrounded her, and one asked the girls, who had just walked in the room, if they knew who she was.

"They ran and hugged me saying 'mami,' " Llanes recalls through tears. It had been almost 2 1/2 years since she had seen them.

An Unfavorable Change

Llanes was allowed to stay with the girls in the country. At one point she consulted immigration advocates in Washington to explore their legal options but dropped the idea once she was told how much it would cost.

Despite "backbreaking" jobs, they've never had money to spare. On top of the political climate, they've been badly hurt economically. The housing crisis, which hit Prince William particularly hard, has meant much less work for construction workers such as Llanes's husband.

What's more, the four-bedroom brick rambler she and her family share with relatives is soon to be repossessed by the bank. A friend who bought it for nearly half a million dollars last year can no longer pay the mortgage.

Llanes, who had no education except for the few months at age 13 when a relative took her in and sent her to school, inculcates in the girls the importance of taking advantage of their opportunity to study and learn English. "I wish I [had] that opportunity," she tells them.

Llanes makes about $25 every weekday taking care of friends' children, and from Friday through Sunday earns $6.60 an hour making tacos. That money covers most of their food expenses, she says.

"With the situation as it is, I want to leave," she said.

She says her girls and the other children she cares for provide a welcome distraction. Still, she recalls a Spanish expression: "caras vemos, corazones no sabemos" (faces we see, hearts we don't know) to explain that she carries her share of anguish. Or as she put it, "only God knows how one is feeling inside."