This Valentine’s Day, let’s all come together to reject the attacks on our immigrant neighbors and to let them know they are valued and loved
This Valentine’s Day, we want to share a message of love and solidarity with the immigrant community members who contribute so much to this country and are worthy of respect and dignity.
Happy Valentine’s Day to immigrant mothers like Ofelia Barajas, a Bay Area entrepreneur who got her start selling tamales on the street and now, along with her daughter Reyna Maldonado operates a popular Mexican restaurant in Oakland. Las Guerreras is so popular that the pair “opened a seafood restaurant next door in Swan’s Market specializing in ceviches,” ABC 7 News reported last year.
“It’s so important for us to talk about our experience being undocumented here,” Maldonado said, “because I want people to really feel the strength of what it is to be an immigrant here because we live in a country that doesn’t recognize us and tries to erase us in every way possible.”
Happy Valentine’s Day to immigrant dads like Narciso Barranco, a landscaper who raised three American sons who grew up to serve their country as U.S. Marines. Following his brutal immigration arrest and detention last summer, Mr. Barranco’s worries following his release weren’t about himself, but instead about the people he met in detention and were still separated from their loved ones. “I want to tell their families they have faith,” he said, “they miss you all, and even in that place, they have hope.”
Asif Amin Cheema, another immigrant dad, deserves hope and family reunification this Valentine’s Day. The sandwich shop owner was detained and deported to Pakistan on New Year’s Day 2026 despite having an asylum application and no criminal record. His daughter told Chicago Sun-Times that she “wants Asians to speak up and band together not just with one another, but with all immigrant communities who are being targeted.”
Happy Valentine’s Day to immigrant students like Caroline Dias Goncalves, who following her unjust arrest also used her platform to advocate for others still in detention. “I hope no one else has to go through what I did. But I know that right now, over 1,300 people are still in that same nightmare in that Aurora detention facility,” she said. “They are just like me—including other people who’ve grown up here, who love this country, who want nothing more than a chance to belong.”
Happy Valentine’s Day to immigrant caregivers like Gina Policard, a home health worker originally from Haiti. She told Documented last year that she initially began her career as a way to pay the bills, but then fell in love with her work and her patients. “But I love the job because I love taking care of people the same way I do for my family,” she said.
Immigrant caregivers like Ms. Policard are critical in providing vital services and companionship to our loved ones. In fact, they play an outsized role in this industry. “In 2019, 36.5% of all home health aides in the United States were immigrants, a rate that was twice their share of the U.S. workforce overall (17.1%),” researchers said in 2023. “This includes undocumented workers, who made up an estimated 6.9% of home health aides and 4.4% of personal care aides.”
Happy Valentine’s Day to immigrant construction workers like Ricardo Martínez, who prides himself on helping build Dallas’ Globe Life Field, the Texas Rangers’ home. Mr. Martínez told The Dallas Morning News that he got his start “picking up trash at construction sites” before being promoted in the industry. “I am building a legacy for the city, but I am also building the example that I want to give my children: that Hispanics are good people dedicated to working,” he said. Immigrants all over this country play a critical role in the construction industry, making up roughly 2.2 million of the workers who help build our roads, schools, houses, bridges, and so much more.
Happy Valentine’s Day to immigrant farm workers like Norma, who is among the vast undocumented workforce that helps feed you and me. But despite their vital work helping sustain our nation’s food supply, the 1.2 million farmworkers who lack legal immigration status live in constant fear of family separation. “We were considered essential workers during the pandemic,” Norma said. “We paid our taxes. We followed the law. Now, we live in hiding.”
It’s a shameful way to treat the essential workers who feed our country – rain or shine, blistering heat or penetrating cold – and quite literally keep the entire agricultural industry alive.
Happy Valentine’s Day to immigrant neighbors helping neighbors. In Minnesota, Somali refugee Mahmoud Hasan is one of hundreds of community members who have been patrolling their neighborhoods in order to help keep their neighbors safe. For Mr. Hasan, strength is in his DNA. “We fled a civil war,” he said. “We are more resilient than they think.” This fellowship is everywhere. Following the brutal killing of Renee Nicole Good last month, “elderly Somali women handed out tea and homemade sambusas” at one protest, The Intercept reported.
Happy Valentine’s Day to mixed-status immigrant families, who face the added challenges of “foster care, displacement,” and “changes in guardianship,” as Daily Bruin noted last month. “In the U.S., 5.5 million American-born children live in a mixed-status family – a household having both residents who are undocumented and residents who have permanent legal status, according to the Center for Migration Studies.” These families deserve stability.
And, of course, happy Valentines’ Day to all immigrants everywhere who, with their hopes, dreams, and immense contributions (think $524.7 billion in total taxes annually), make us a more vibrant, stronger, and aspirational country. “Freedom took on a whole new meaning this year for William Nigira,” who became a U.S. citizen at the Saguaro National Park ceremony this past July 4 holiday. “It feels like a home,” he said. And, that’s how it should feel for him and the millions of other immigrants just like him.
This Valentine’s Day, let’s all come together to reject the attacks on our immigrant neighbors and to let them know they are valued, appreciated, and deserving of their place here in this country we all call home.
