Searching for Peace While Holding Everything Together

(Picture/ Marco Antonio Casique Reyes)

NOTES FROM AN IMMIGRANT MOTHER IN COLORADO

Dr. Luisa Montoya/ Diversity Matters

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There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from trying to build a peaceful life while the ground beneath you keeps shifting. As an immigrant mother in Colorado, peace is something I am constantly chasing, rarely catching, and always negotiating—between parenting, entrepreneurship, and the quiet fear that never fully leaves the room.

Colorado is often framed as welcoming, progressive, and inclusive. And in many ways, it is. Immigrants make up roughly 10% of the state’s population and are responsible for a significant share of small businesses, particularly in service, construction, and childcare sectors.

Immigrant-owned businesses contribute billions to Colorado’s economy and employ tens of thousands of people. We are not invisible. We are essential.

And yet, fear has a way of overriding statistics.

Over the past year, reports of increased ICE enforcement activity across Colorado have spread quickly through immigrant communities. Whether in Denver, Aurora, or smaller towns, the result is the same: parents double-check routes to school, workers hesitate before showing up to job sites, and children learn words like “raid” far earlier than they should. Even when rumors turn out to be false, the psychological impact is real. Fear does not require confirmation to take hold.

What weighs on me most is my children’s awareness. They ask careful questions. They notice my tension when a strange car is parked too long on our street. They know that safety is conditional. No child should grow up measuring risk before innocence, yet many immigrant children do—quietly, instinctively, and without drama.

At the same time, I am running a business.

This is where the contradiction becomes almost absurd. Immigrant entrepreneurs are celebrated for resilience, grit, and contribution—until the systems meant to protect stability begin to erode it. Running a business requires planning, long-term thinking, and trust in tomorrow.

Living under constant uncertainty undermines all three. You are expected to grow, hire, comply, and contribute, while also preparing for the possibility that everything could unravel with one knock on the door.

There is dark humor in this balancing act, whether we admit it or not. You file taxes, meet payroll, and plan for growth while simultaneously calculating worst-case scenarios that no business course ever prepared you for. It is exhausting in a way that doesn’t show up on spreadsheets.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion cannot stop at celebration. It must confront discomfort. It must acknowledge that inclusion without safety is fragile, and equity without stability is performative. Immigrant families are not asking for sympathy—we are asking for systems that recognize our humanity as more than economic output.