Cristiana returned to a jail in Adelanto, California, for the first time in over a decade at the end of September. She used to make the roughly two-hour drive from Los Angeles to Adelanto’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center complex when her three daughters were young so they could see their father, a migrant from Mexico who was jailed there in the 2000s before being deported.
When she returned this year, she gathered in front of the complex alongside faith leaders, migrant justice organizers, and members of her church to begin a 96-mile pilgrimage that ended on Tuesday at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles.
“I remember them being so young and not understanding why their dad had gone to work one day and never came back,” said Cristiana, who is using a pseudonym to protect her family’s privacy. “I see the trauma that it caused.”…