Los Angeles Times

For young dual citizens, an uncharted Mexico

LOS ANGELES - The girl clutched the goodbye card her friend Emily handed her that morning.

"All thou we'll be a few miles apart you allways be my best firend."

Luz Madrigal, 6, sat in the back seat of the car with her little brother Alejandro, heading south to the U.S.-Mexico border and a new home more than a thousand miles away.

Faced with diminishing job prospects and a president who promised to make life harder for them, Luz's mother and father - immigrants in the country illegally - decided to go back to Mexico.

They joined more than 100 people voluntarily returning since January to Mexico with the help of consulates in Los Angeles, Houston and Chicago.

An hour into the drive, Luz watched the urban blur pass by the car window under a gray sky. She pointed out tall buildings a little ways off in the distance.

"Is that Guatarajara?" she asked.

Her mother did not correct her pronunciation of Guadalajara.

"No," she said. "We still have a long way to

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