Hi ACLU Supporter –

My name is Lisa, and I'm a mother of seven from Council Bluffs, Iowa. My husband and I are proud to call our community home.

You can imagine my shock when one day the police arrested my husband and took him to an ICE immigrant detention site. I didn't understand why it happened – when we got married we did everything by the book, paid all our fees, everything. This wasn't supposed to happen to us.

Family separation isn't just happening at the border. Watch this video to learn more about my family's experience with ICE – and how we plan to fight back.

For the five months my husband was detained, my children and I clung to one another in bed each night, praying for him to come home. After my daughter gave her testimony in court, a judge finally ruled to reunite us. We were overjoyed when ICE released him – but it's a terrible thing for a little girl to have to go through just to get her dad back.

Immigrants come here to build a better life for themselves and their families. My husband is no exception. But throughout this ordeal, we learned that there's no humanity in our immigration system. The government doesn't care that they're ripping up families and taking parents away from children like my own.

See for yourself how ICE almost tore apart my family. It's a sad window into what's happening to thousands across this country – families separated, immigrants thrown behind bars and deported, and our country's inclusive values compromised at every turn.

Even though my family is now reunited, we still don't feel safe. Some local police stations are allowed and encouraged to work with ICE to carry out its mass deportation agenda – so many people like us continue to be targeted in our own neighborhoods. That's why we need a presidential candidate who will disentangle federal immigration enforcement, like ICE, from local law enforcement.

I've always said to myself that I would do whatever I could to help people – because this affects all of us. This affects our entire country.

Thanks for joining us,

Lisa Lima
Mother, wife, and advocate for immigrants' rights