The Mexican Couple Planning to Self-Deport
From the daily newsletter: the undocumented parents making the painful decision to leave the United States, and their children, behind.
The reality that families with mixed immigration status are facing. Plus:
- Tatiana Schlossberg’s battle with her blood
- What Zohran Mamdani is up against
- The best performances of the year

Rosalinda and Manuel García keep their family’s blinds drawn, and leave the house only to go to work. Grocery shopping and other errands are now handled by their children.Illustration by Katherine Lam
A Mexican Couple in California Plans to Self-Deport—and Leave Their Kids Behind
Can undocumented parents elude ICE capture for one more year, until their youngest turns eighteen?
By Jordan Salama
Lily García was ready for her seventeenth-birthday party well before it started. On a late-summer afternoon in San Bernardino, California, the high-school senior stood in the cool shade of her family’s covered back patio, wearing a black tank top and high-waisted jeans. As always, her mother, Rosalinda, had gone all out with the preparations. Traditional multicolored Mexican fabrics were draped across tables and benches. Two men from a party-rentals company were testing the controls for a mechanical bull they’d set up in the back yard. A mini-fridge was stocked with soda, and small bags of Cheetos and Doritos were neatly arranged in a basket. It was two-thirty in the afternoon; her friends weren’t even invited until five. “And that’s ‘Mexican time,’ ” Lily said, smiling, before heading off to her room to double-check her makeup.
At the counter of the family’s outdoor kitchen, Rosalinda was preparing a huge tub of ceviche, chopping shrimp and cucumbers and limes; it had become a signature dish of hers, and she sometimes sold it to neighbors when the family needed extra cash. Her son, José, the oldest of her three children, sat at the head of a long table. “She seems excited,” Rosalinda said to José, in Spanish.
“Yeah,” José replied, in English, a bit distracted. (The family’s names have been changed.) The twenty-eight-year-old, who worked as a scientist at a manufacturing plant in Los Angeles, was studying his laptop screen. He was using Google Maps to look at Mazatlán, a city on the Pacific coast of Mexico. “Mom, do you remember the address of the house where you grew up?” he asked, clicking around.
“I think it was 414 Emiliano Zapata,” Rosalinda said. José typed in the address and turned the computer to show her the Street View. She shook her head. “That’s not it. Try 414 Salvador Allende.” That wasn’t right, either. They went back and forth like this for a while, without success. Then they turned to her cloudy memories of people she’d known as a young girl. Because Rosalinda had left Mazatlán when she was barely seven and was brought to the U.S. by her mother when she was ten, she remembered little about the town.
Editor’s Pick

Photograph by Thea Traff for The New Yorker
A Battle with My Blood
Tatiana Schlossberg, daughter of Caroline Kennedy, has died at thirty-five. In November, she wrote about receiving a terminal diagnosis following the birth of her second child and her fear of adding another tragedy to her family’s life. Read the story »
More Top Stories
- What Zohran Mamdani Is Up Against
- The Best Performances of 2025
- Finishing School: Hands Off Our Pencils
Our Culture Picks
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Read: The novel “Best Offer Wins,” by Marisa Kashino, is a diabolical satirical thriller about a woman who goes to extreme measures to secure the house of her dreams.
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Watch: Our critics agree that “One Battle After Another” was one of the best movies of the year. Now you can stream it on HBO Max.
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Listen: “Articles of Interest: Gear” is a lively podcast about the history of military garb and its connections with civilian life.
Daily Cartoon
“It’s ‘big scarf, oversized sweater, puffer jacket, no peripheral vision’ season.”
Cartoon by Sarah Kempa
Puzzles & Games
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The Holiday Crossword: Today’s theme—2025 in sports.
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Shuffalo: Can you make a longer word with each new letter?
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Laugh Lines: Test your knowledge of classic New Yorker cartoons.
P.S. Like The New Yorker, the Radio City Rockettes turned a hundred this year. Ever wondered what it’s like to write the script for their famous Christmas Spectacular?
Erin Neil contributed to today’s edition.
