In the U.S., immigrants who arrived as children haven’t been targeted for deportation. But that could change.
Billie and Fabian sit at a round table in Billie’s kitchen thinking out loud. Considering options. It’s evening. Pitch black, with no stars. It might rain. A dog barks.
“I don’t know what I could do, but I’d do everything I possibly could,” Billie says. “My husband would be so vocal. He’s very to the point.”
She speaks of her husband as if he is still alive. She misses him. She enjoys talking about him, but tears cloud her eyes. He died in 2013. He was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and moved to Missouri in 1958 when he was 18. Two of his uncles worked in Kansas City at the time. He and Billie married in 1960 after they met at Nazarene Publishing House downtown where they both worked. A lifetime ago. She’s 76 now.
“My husband came here for the opportunity,” Billie says.
After he crossed the border, her husband needed a bathroom. He entered one marked “colored only.” When he came out, a man told him the bathroom was only for black people. The story surprised Billie when he told her. She had been born into an affluent Kansas City family. The social issues of the day never crossed her doorstep. The civil rights movement was something she read…
