The Cruz family was exhausted. It was two days before Christmas 2024, and Rachel was coughing from bronchitis, her body once again crashing into the holiday break as she finished her 17th year teaching public high school in New York City. Irvi, her husband, was sleeping after his day shift at an upscale bistro on the Upper West Side, which had followed an overnight shift at a Latin dance club farther uptown, in Inwood. Between the two jobs, he’d dropped their daughters—Sara, 12, and Ana, 10—at their schools for gifted students, then rushed home to the Bronx to cook and do laundry. Explore the April 2026 Issue Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read. View More For years, Rachel and Irvi had been hustling to make this routine work, hoping that American immigration policy would evolve and allow Irvi, who had spent half his life in the United States, to become a citizen. Raising two children in New York City was expensive. Each day felt like a marathon they …