• The Deported follows long term residents of the United States who are in the deportation system. Four families, each with varying circumstances, have a loved one who has an Order of Deportation. And they each have to make decisions that affect their future and whether their family can stay together.In New Fairfield, CT, Joel Colindres, an asylum seeker from Guatemala, has no criminal record, a successful business, two beautiful US born children and a US born wife. He has a self-deportation date and it is coming quickly. He and his wife Samantha have hired a top immigration attorney, have organized rallies with the support of Senator Blumenthal, and have the community support. Joel is part of their community. But the days are counting down. He has to prepare to say goodbye to his young children and his wife, who fights daily to keep their family. together.Lorenc Rranxburgaj is a college student at the University of Michigan and a DACA recipient. For now his status is legal. But his family has decided to take refuge in a sanctuary church. His mother, Flora, has MS and is on a slow decline. She has a Humanitarian stay from ICE. But his father, Ded, his mother’s primary caregiver, was ordered deported back to Albania. Rather than leaving his wife to die without him, they took sanctuary. ICE has declared him a fugitive despite the fact that their attorney told ICE exactly where he was and why he took refuge. ICE refuses to talk with him and the family. So Ded is a prisoner at the church, unable to work. But his family is together. If Ded and Lorenc are eventually deported, their 15-year-old son, an American citizen, will have to take care of his mother with MS.

    Roxanne (last name withheld) was a premed student at the University of Texas with dreams of becoming a trauma surgeon. But a misdemeanor for theft when she was a teenager, something she calls the stupidest thing she’s done in her life, meant that her DACA status was stripped and she was ordered deported. She came to the US at the age of two. She was sexually abused by her own father who was deported for sex crimes. Should she be deported, she would return to her father’s family and be susceptible to additional abuse, ostracization and possible violence by her own father because she is responsible for his deportation. Like many young women, she would be dropped at the border with whatever she has would have to fend for herself, putting her into the hands of human traffickers.

    Pablo and Camilo Dunoyer’s parents packed them up when they were small children and fled Colombia. Since their dad was a government official, FARC rebels had threatened kill the family if they did not pay extortion money. The family fled to San Diego with two suitcases leaving their home and possessions behind. Pablo is now a college student and Camilo is graduating high school, both with honors. But the family was ordered deported after years of having a stay. They still get threats from FARC and returning to Colombia is not an option. They had a meeting with ICE scheduled but ICE canceled it the day before the meeting. Now with an Order of Deportation over the whole family and no direction from ICE about when they have to leave, they are in limbo living in day to day fear of deportation.