Op-ed by Cynthia Diaz

“Cynthia! They’re taking your mom!” The sound of my dad’s shout woke me up at seven in the morning.

I ran to the front door of our Arizona home that morning, where 10 agents in black uniforms surrounded my mom. Already handcuffed in her pajamas and slippers, she was being pushed into a van. Our eyes met and I recognized her sadness and fear. When my dad asked one officer what happened, he actually chuckled. “You know what happened. Did you help her cross?” All we could do was look out at my front yard as one by one, the officers started to disappear into the van with my mother. They took off, and my dad and I went back inside.

This is how I learned, at age 15, that my mother was an undocumented immigrant. And it took Immigration and Customs Enforcement all of 15 minutes to break up my family. It was like some numerological joke.

Read the entire article and watch Cynthia’s interview at http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/why-i-went-hunger-strike-my-mom