New America Media, Video, Text: Irma Herrera / Video: Cliff Parker and Carlos Cota-Estevez, Posted: Oct 30, 2012

Editor’s note: Over the past decade, U.S. authorities have deported 3 million people – about 70 percent to Mexico. Many of those who have been expelled are parents.

Women leaders from throughout the United States recently traveled to Phoenix, Atlanta, Birmingham, and to the border town of Tijuana to meet with women immigrants and advocacy organizations, and to hear about the impact of immigration policies on families and their communities.

These delegations were sponsored and organized by The We Belong Together campaign, which is coordinated by the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, in collaboration with an advisory committee that includes the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, the Women’s Refugee Commission, MomsRising, and other advocacy groups. The WBT campaign aims to expose the negative impact of anti-immigrant sentiment on families and communities.

A part of the September delegation to Tijuana, Irma Herrera, co-director of New America Media’s Women Immigrants Project and NAM videographer, Cliff Parker, interviewed women living at the Madre Asunta Women’s Shelter, who have been separated from their U.S.- citizen children. All are seeking to reunite their families.