The 'Orange Is the New Black' actress gets emotional in a CNN interview when talking about her parents and brother who were deported to Colombia when she was 14.
- Nov 18, 2014
AceShowbiz - Actress Diane Guerrero, who plays Maritza Ramos on "Orange Is the New Black", breaks down in tears when she recalled the moments after she found out that her parents and brother were taken by immigration officials to be deported back to Colombia when she was a teenager. In a new interview with CNN, Guerrero remembered she went back home to an empty house. Her neighbor later said that her family was taken by immigration officials.
"I broke down. I hid under the bed because I was afraid that someone was going to come for me," she shared. "I don't know who that someone was, but I was just so scared. You know, it's like, what do you - what do you do? And then I'm so scared for them, like what they're going through, you know. My parents are going to jail, and for what? You know, I didn't consider them criminals."
After her family was taken away, the 14-year-old Guerrero relied on people's kindness. She also revealed that no government officials checked whether she had something to eat. Guerrero and her family in Colombia are still in contact and she visits them once a year.
"It's tough, you know," she said before breaking down in tears. "We've been separated for so long. I feel like sometimes we don't know each other and that's difficult because I've grown up without them and there's things about them that are new that I don't recognize and it just - it hurts. I love them so much and I just - I just hate that they have gone through this. And I know I've been by myself, but I feel like they have lived a very lonely existence themselves. I'm sorry."
In the interview, the actress, who previously shared in a piece published on Los Angeles Times that her brother had a young daughter when he was deported, said her niece made some bad choices and now is serving her time in prison. Guerrero now calls for changes in legislation for immigrant families so that they are not torn apart.
