Aracely Duarte Perez HM ’29 raised more than $50,000 in two weeks for her parents as they face a move to Tijuana following a deportation order issued Monday, Sept. 22.
Perez started the GoFundMe campaign on Sept. 24 with the goal of raising $17,500 to help her parents transition to life in Tijuana, Mexico. 1,400 people have donated since, nearly tripling the campaign’s original goal.
Her family’s story has gone viral on social media. Perez shared a TikTok video last month in which her father, Francisco Javier Duarte, spoke about his and his wife’s imminent deportation. The post has received over 180,000 likes as of Oct. 9.
In the video, Duarte said he loved living in the United States and serving ice cream to his San Diego community. However, the past eight years in the country have proven difficult due to his family’s battle with deportation authorities.
In 2017, Duarte was detained by immigration authorities for seven months. Although he was eventually released, it only marked the beginning of a long legal battle.
“We were holding onto the hope that everything would turn out fine,” Duarte said in the video, his voice breaking. “It didn’t.”
Although Duarte said he has thirty days to appeal the judge’s decision, he won’t be doing so.
“For my health, for my children’s, for my wife’s, we’ve decided it would be better to part ways from this beautiful country that gave us so much,” he said.
After donations began rolling in, Perez said support from the community was astounding in an updated description on her original TikTok video.
“I can’t even begin to comprehend the overwhelming outpouring of support and love via kind words, offers of help and donations,” she wrote. “I would have never imagined, especially via TikTok and the community. God bless.”
Facebook Comments