Trump and ICE Want to Snatch Her Future. Let's Help Save It.

She and I can't tell you her name. You'll understand her need for anonymity as you continue reading.

She's a brilliant teenager who lives near Washington DC and is finishing her junior year of high school. I am an independent journalist who has covered immigration for years. I met her and her mother back when she was 10 years old and a victim of the hell of family separation that the two suffered under Trump 1.0.

Now, thanks to Trump 2.0 sadism against immigrants, they are suffering again.

Their story started when they left Central America in 2018 under threats of homicidal, gender-based violence. After they and thousands of other families were torn apart at the border, and public outrage followed, Trump was impelled to cancel the policy. They were reunited then and given provisional legal status in the US. Today, mom works full time as a janitor for minimum wage.

Eventually the family was joined by a kind, generous man who became mom's partner and the girl's father figure.

He was undocumented and had been ordered years earlier by ICE to leave the US. Instead of leaving, he retreated into the shadows. But he never ran afoul of the criminal justice system, and a few years ago he started paying federal income taxes. Meanwhile, the girl's mother makes just enough to pay the bills -- except for the biggest one, the rent. It comprises half of the family's expenses. Her partner covered it.

In late April he was grabbed by ICE as he left the family's apartment to drive to work. Was he targeted because of the income tax payments? The IRS has recently started sending names and addresses to ICE.

He was the family's economic mainstay. .Now he's being processed for shipment back to the economically collapsed, violent nation he left decades ago.

What is life like for the daughter now? What is it like to be an immigrant teen with perfect English, beautiful writing, great math and STEM smarts, on the honor roll, thinking excitedly about college -- and now fearing she may have to go to work to support the family?

She had forebodings. Just before the second inauguration, when she was 16, she wrote an essay for a national publication. I wish I could give you the link; it's powerful and moving. But it was bylined with her real name. Yes, she has legal status. But what does that mean anymore?

Her essay recounts the family's separation in 2018. It also reflects on much more: on society's existential need to remember, and bad government's need to make us forget.

I am happy that she'll at least be able to append this powerful essay to her college applications -- if she ever gets to submit them. Will she have to quit high school and go to work? The answer will to a great extent depend on all of us.

We can't forget people like her and her family. To ease her mind and relieve some of the terrible pressure on her mom, they need rent money. We hope to raise six months' worth with this GoFundMe.

By donating, you will be helping to give a talented, promising young woman the chance of a future. By helping the family, you will be helping to eradicate this madness and destruction, and give us ALL the chance for a future.

Thank you.