Immigrant reuniting with her parents after 8 years reveals the pain of living 'undocumented'

A woman who had not seen her parents in eight years traveled back to their home without warning and documented the moment they saw her again for the first time. The video, shared by Yuseline Lizarraga (@yuseline_lizarraga) on Instagram, captures the reunion and the history behind it. "What reuniting with your loved ones looks like. They had no idea I was coming," she wrote in the video's text. She explained that she had been undocumented for several years, unable to travel freely. The reunion only became possible after she traveled to Ciudad Juárez to begin the process of securing her permanent residency in the United States.

While heading to her immigration appointment, she took the opportunity to visit her family, something she had longed to do but couldn’t risk until now. Her husband had previously visited and knew where her parents lived. As soon as her parents saw her, the emotional weight of the separation grew heavy. Her father was the first to come outside, followed by her mother, who appeared soon after but was so overwhelmed that she couldn’t immediately move. "She felt like she was going to faint," Lizarraga explained.

She described the moment as one she would relive again and again if it meant being able to hug her parents. She hadn’t seen her older sister in seven years either. Her parents had only seen her two older children once, during a prior visit made by her husband. This was the first time they were all together again. She shared in her caption, "Many times, we take these moments for granted. The moments to visit our parents and spend time with them. I can still feel every emotion of this day. I would go relive it every day if it meant seeing them and hugging them."

At one point during the visit, she turned to her mother and said, "Ya le traje a sus tesoritos," translated in the video as "I have brought you your small treasures." Reflecting on the day, she credited her brother for keeping the plan a secret and described the effort to see her parents as something she would never forget. She ended her post with a message about the lasting impact of family separation, writing, "We all have a story and everyone’s is so different, but we are all united somehow by the separation of families and missing out on important life moments." She added that her next goal was to find a way to bring her parents to the United States legally.

Lizarraga's situation is something many families face across the United States. According to an FRTF Interim Progress Report, more than 4,600 children were separated from their parents by the U.S. government between 2017 and 2021, and over 1,300 of those children had not been reunited with their families as of late 2023. The reunion resonated deeply with viewers, many of whom shared their thoughts in the comments. u/beautybydinorah wrote, "You are so blessed to have this moment. I wanted this moment so bad with my oldest brother. Sadly, he passed away almost a year before I got my residency." u/alesbeautythingz commented, "I can only imagine everyone’s emotion. Omg." u/_viviana_mtz added, "Girl, stop it. I'm at work. I can't be crying!!"

You can follow Yuseline Lizarraga (@yuseline_lizarraga) on Instagram for more daily life content.