Diane Guerrero is an actor most known for her role as Maritza on Orange Is the New Black. She is also an immigration reform advocate who has experienced the devastation of family deportation firsthand.
Diane went on to share that because she was the only US citizen in her family, her father would remind her “every day” of the situation they were in. “My dad had this whole system. ‘Here’s where I hide this in case anything happens’ and, you know, ‘Don’t be scared and know that you’re going to be okay and that we love you very much and we wish this situation was different for us, but this is our reality.’“
The day her family got detained and later deported to Colombia, Diane recalled having a “feeling” something happened. “I called my parents a million times. I was coming home from school and I was really excited because I went to a performance arts high school so around that time we were planning Springfest. Everyone was getting their parts and their singing roles. I was really excited because this was my first year and I was really excited to tell them about it,” she told CNN.
However, her happiness disappeared. “I got home, and their cars were there, and the lights were on, and dinner was started, but I couldn’t find them,” she said, fighting tears, adding, “It was really hard…it was really hard.”
Eventually, the neighbors came over and told Diane that her parents had been taken. “I broke down. I hid under the bed because I was scared somebody was going to come for me.”
“I was so scared. What do you do? And then I’m so scared for them, what they’re going through, you know, my parents are going to jail — and for what? They’re not criminals.”
After a few hours of waiting with the neighbors and parents of her friends who knew about the situation, Diane finally got a call from her dad. “He said that he was being detained. And then my mother called — they were separated.”
And because of all of this, Diane said her relationship with her parents is forever changed. “It’s tough. We’ve been separated for so long; I feel like sometimes we don’t know each other. It’s difficult because I’ve grown up without them. There are things about them that are new that I don’t recognize, and it hurts. But I love them so much and I hate that they have gone through this. I know I’ve been by myself but I feel like they have lived a very lonely existence by themselves.”
She went on, “It is so difficult for some people to get documented — to get their papers and to become legal. My parents tried forever and this system didn’t offer relief for them.”
Finally, Diane emphasized that even though she was only a minor at 14, no government agency reached out to see if she was okay after this occurred. She relied solely on her friends’ parents to help get her through the rest of high school and beyond.
And people have been quick to point out how difficult the last season of Orange Is the New Black must have been for her. Her character, Maritza Ramos, gets deported to Colombia at the end of Episode 5. The episode is called “Minority Deport.”