On his own in America: Amadou Ly and his mother came to the U.S. illegally. When his mother returned to Senegal, Amadou was left to find his own way.

• Author: Ly, Amadou
• Position: VOICES

When I was 13 years old, I came to the United States from Senegal with my mother on a visitor's visa. I don't remember her telling me that we were going to live in the U.S., just that we were going on a trip. I didn't speak any English when we got here.

But our life in New York didn't turn out as my mother had hoped. We arrived the day before 9/11, and in the aftermath of the attacks, the city's economy was in bad shape. It was hard for my mother to find work, and she struggled to pay the rent.

After about a year, my mother returned to Senegal to find work. She left me here, hoping that I could finish my American education and have better opportunities than the limited ones in Senegal. I was 14 years old, and I was on my own.

My mother told me to take the bus to Indianapolis, where she had a Senegalese friend who would take care of me. I know she expected her friend to treat me like a son, but that's not what happened. Instead of letting me study, she forced me to work in her beauty shop until late at night. And sometimes she didn't let me eat with her family. I can still remember how hungry I was during that time.

In the summer of 2004, I returned to New York for my junior year. I was too young to have my own apartment, so I lived with my mother's former neighbor in Harlem. It was a two-bedroom apartment with eight Senegalese living in it. I was the youngest, so I slept on the couch or the carpet. It was hard to find a quiet place to study with all those people, but I enjoyed living there because the people were so nice. To earn money for food and school supplies, I handed out fliers for a clothing store on a street corner.

DEPORTATION BATTLE

In November 2004, I had the bad luck to be a passenger in a car that was rear-ended. The police who investigated the accident called immigration authorities, and that's how my two-year-long court battle over deportation began. About every...