Laura Hernandez spent seven years avoiding her Pittsburg home’s backyard. The place that was so lively for over 20 years became another reminder of her parents’ absence while they were unable to legally leave Mexico.

But thanks to help from the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area, the Hernandez household is once again the place where weekly dinners and family hangouts happen.

“There is joy, and we are doing the things we used to do again,” Laura said. “Cooking outside, the kids playing outside and those types of things, building more memories.”

The IIBA helps immigrants, refugees and their families by providing high-quality, affordable immigration legal services, education and civic engagement opportunities.

The organization is hoping to raise $20,000 in order to help provide 1,100 consultations, assist 80 survivors of violence, file 20 applications for asylum seekers and more.

“We give a voice to people who are underrepresented,” senior representative Llanet Ramirez said. “We provide the community valuable legal immigration advice that otherwise, if not received, could make them vulnerable to receiving incorrect advice or make them susceptible to immigration scams, further making it more difficult to ever obtain legal status.”

The Hernandez family had already been in contact with IIBA for years when their eldest son, Jean Carlos, was deported in 2016.

He then fell gravely ill, and his mother Emilce and father Manuel were faced with an impossible choice.

As undocumented immigrants, they knew that if they went to Mexico, getting back to the country they had lived in for over two decades would be extremely difficult.

“We did not know whether he would make it or not, and in that moment, he needed us the most,” Manuel said, with Laura translating from Spanish to English.

Laura, then 21, and her teenage brother Osmar stayed in Pittsburg, but their parents made the trip to Ignacio Zaragoza, a town in northern Mexico.

The worst-case scenario happened.

Jean Carlos died in December 2017, and Emilce and Manuel were stuck south of the border in an area of the country that had drastically changed since they left over 30 years ago. Manuel took up agricultural jobs in the field as the family – along with IIBA – worked to reunite.

Laura – who was working full-time and raising a family – became the contact person for IIBA as Ramirez tried to find a way to get Emilce and Manuel a U-Visa, which would allow them to return to the United States.

But as the months stretched into years, staying hopeful became almost impossible for Laura, who leaned on her husband – also named Manuel – for strength.

But it was still difficult.

“Not having them, I felt like my world crumbled at that moment and every day that they were not here, I didn’t feel complete,” Laura said.

Thousands of miles to the south, Emilce also came close to losing faith.

“With the time passing, there would be days that we would lose hope and think we may never be reunited again,” she said, before adding, “But then the next day would come, and we would think it would happen.”

The outlook began to brighten for the family in 2023.

In May of that year, the IIBA received U-visa approval for the parents. But that October, more bad news arrived – while Emilce’s visa was approved, Manuel’s was not.

Once again, the family appeared to be faced with a difficult decision.

“If she did not come, she would lose the visa and never be able to come again,” Laura remembered. “(They) have always been together, and the decision of leaving was together, and she would not come back if it wasn’t with him.”

But again, Ramirez and IIBA were able to help the Hernandez family, although even the slightest misstep could have caused grave consequences.

“If there’s a hiccup, it could take weeks, months or even years to get everything resolved,” Ramirez said.

After two long months of waiting, Manuel’s visa was approved and the couple hopped on a bus bound for San Jose in December.

“I felt like it wasn’t real,” Emilce said. “Once the bus said that it was in California, that’s when I felt like it was real. There were so many times I felt like it probably wasn’t going to happen.”

“There was not one day I did not speak to them,” Manuel said. “We were in communication throughout the entire trip.”

When the bus arrived in the South Bay on Dec. 13, the family had a joyous reunion as Emilce and Manuel were surrounded by not just their children, but also extended family.

“It was an emotion I can’t explain,” Manuel said. “It is the most happy I have been in a long, long time.”

In almost a year since their return, Manuel has collaborated with IIBA in hopes of finding employment.

While the Hernandezes were originally from Mexico, they have long considered the U.S. their home. Both parents stressed that they want to be hardworking contributors in a country they both love.

“We believe that this is a miracle that we are back here,” Emilce said.