Diane Guerrero Retells Her Family Separation Story to John Leguizamo—And It Feels More Timely Than Ever
In a moment that feels ripped straight from today’s headlines, actress and activist Diane Guerrero talked with John Leguizamo on his Leguizamo Does America show and reopened the wound that changed her life forever.
“I was left alone at 14,” she tells him quietly. “My family was separated… through deportation.” Her voice is steady, but you can feel the weight in the pause. The clip, shared on Instagram by Fuse TV, is reigniting conversation around immigration, cruelty, and resilience—because Guerrero’s story is no longer just personal. It’s political.
Diane Guerrero Was 14 When Her Entire Family Was Deported
Born in New Jersey to Colombian immigrants, Diane Guerrero grew up knowing her family’s status made them vulnerable. According to CNN, her parents were undocumented, and Diane—an American citizen—was told daily by her father where he hid documents in case “anything happened.”
That day came in high school. Guerrero recalls coming home to find the lights on, dinner half-cooked—and her parents gone. “Their cars were there, and the lights were on, and dinner was started, but I couldn’t find them,” she told CNN in a now-viral 2014 interview. “I broke down. I hid under the bed because I was scared somebody was going to come for me.”
No agency checked on her. No social worker called. At 14, she was left to survive on the kindness of friends’ families—and the quiet endurance of undocumented life in America.
Telling Her Story Became a Form of Resistance
In her conversation with Leguizamo, Guerrero explains that the trauma of family separation pushed her into activism. “My entire life, I kind of lived in the shadows with them,” she says. “Even though we so wanted to be alive, and living amongst the living.”
She goes on: “We couldn’t be honest about who we were.” The moment her parents were taken, she says, became a turning point. “When I set out to tell our story, it was to sort of, like, trump whatever perception they had of my community. Because I knew how beautiful my community was—and is.”
Her 2016 memoir My Family Divided: One Girl’s Journey of Home, Loss, and Hope expanded on that goal. But Guerrero’s activism has always been about more than personal healing. It’s about challenging the system that broke her family—and so many others.
Guerrero’s Story Feels Even More Urgent Under Trump’s Second Term
Guerrero’s words hit different today. Especially as President Trump’s immigration policies escalate once again—this time with a push for mass self-deportation, ICE raids, and a reinstated effort to dismantle protections for mixed-status families.
As reported by BuzzFeed, clips of Guerrero sharing her story are going viral again. And it’s easy to see why. The trauma she describes—being left alone, growing distant from her parents, knowing they “lived a very lonely existence”—echoes the experiences of thousands of children growing up in fear of separation today.
Guerrero told CNN the hardest part wasn’t just the loss of her parents—it was knowing they tried everything. “It is so difficult for some people to get documented… My parents tried forever and this system didn’t offer relief for them.”
