Bedtime stories of love and deportation

At home, Ryan Paulsen listens to his mother on the phone from Tijuana. “It makes me really angry when they ask me where my mom is,” he once told his mother about the questions his schoolmates tend to ask. The bedtime calls are a ritual for Ryan and his brothers, Brannon, center, and Alex, who is 14.

Michael Paulsen says grace before dinner with his sons, Brannon, left, Alex and Ryan. The boys’ mother, Emma Sanchez Paulsen, was deported in 2006 and barred from entering the U.S. for 10 years.

Alex Paulsen looks at a wallet photo of his parents, Michael Paulsen and Emma Sanchez Paulsen. His mother hopes to reapply for legal U.S. residency next year.

The Paulsen boys serve themselves dinner at home in Vista, Calif. The brothers, who were all younger than 6 when their mother was deported, visit her in Tijuana about twice a month.

Michael Paulsen looks into the refrigerator as he starts to make dinner for his sons. The fact that he was a U.S. citizen and military veteran had no bearing on his wife’s application to return to the U.S. legally.

Emma Sanchez Paulsen writes in her Tijuana bedroom. She has penned a bedtime story for her sons trying to explain deportation and why she has been unable to return home for so long.

Going through snapshots of her family, Emma Sanchez Paulsen wipes her eyes. She says she often thinks about the milestones she’s missed in her boys’ lives: their first days of school, graduations, award presentations.

Emma Sanchez Paulsen works on illustrations for “The Little Elf,” the story she has written for her sons trying to explain deportation. Out her window, she gazes toward the hills of the U.S./Mexico border, where her family is waiting for her.