Filmmaker: John Goheen

Keeping house and home together can be hard enough even under the best of circumstances. But when you are only 18-years old and have two younger siblings to look after, it is very tough.

Lesley Munoz does just that in a small American town on the Mexican border – knowing that her parents are alive and well, but forced to live in Mexico on the other side of the border.

The Munoz parents came to the USA many years ago on a temporary residence permit to get hospital treatment for their first child who was suffering from a terminal illness. After his death they stayed, fearing similar problems with the two children who then came along.

The US has been stepping up its deportation of undocumented immigrants, showing little sympathy for families that are split apart by this policy.

The authorities have caught up with the Munoz family and the parents have been sent back to Tijuana, just across the border. Lesley and her younger brother and sister were born in the US, and so are US citizens. They cannot be deported. 

Family Torn Apart tells the story of a Mexican-American family who have been separated by a court judgment in pursuit of US immigration policy - a family struggling to stay together across two countries.

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