A Year in the Life of a Family Destroyed by Deportation

While the heated immigration debate is an abstraction for most, now you can see it through the eyes of a Bay Area family who is undergoing the raw anguish of the brutal effects of deportation.

In a San Jose Mercury News half-hour video by Dai Sugano, reported by Ken McLaughlin, we watch a San Mateo family intensely struggling to stay together as the U.S. deports their father -- and tries to deport their mother. It's called Torn Apart.

For decades the nation has endlessly debated how to solve the problem of illegal immigration. One side calls for aggressive enforcement of existing laws. The other side calls for "comprehensive immigration reform." But while the debate rages, millions of American children are left with the real possibility that their undocumented parents will be detected and deported.

For the past year, a Mercury News reporter and photojournalist followed a San Mateo family on their emotional journey through the U.S. immigration system. Both parents came here as illegal immigrants, but all six of their children are American citizens.