I love entertaining people! It's who I am.

I think one of my best qualities is my ability to empathize with people. Perhaps it's because my journey has been so bumpy.

Whatever the reason is, I am happiest when connecting with the human experience. It lets me know that I'm not alone in this world.

I grew up in Boston.

I always thought, 'Wow, I know I have an important story to tell,' but I never really thought it would happen.

We were like any other family with the same troubles and some of the same happy moments.

My parents were desperately trying to become documented citizens of this country and tried very hard to get there, but to no avail.

'Forrest Gump' has been one of my favorite movies of all time.

When I go to places, I love going to all those kind of amusement parks and kind of cheesy things to do.

I was lucky enough to be with my parents until I was 14. Having my parents tell me that I could do anything. I was special. I matter.

Once my family was taken, I became fully aware that my community matters less to some people. That we are treated differently because of the color of our skin or where our parents were born.

I feel like there's this misconception that immigrants come here and just don't care about the system and paying taxes, and that's not true.

My father was desperately trying to be a legal contributor to this society.

My father, who worked as a dishwasher, was especially anxious. He did not like being here undocumented.

We need someone who's going to govern on behalf of everyone in this country, including immigrants.

I definitely binge-watched 'House of Cards' when it first came out.

I think despite what we've seen on TV, people like seeing women and knowing about women's stories and their struggles and their truth. I think we've seen it in a lot of these shows - when there's a cast of all women, it does very well.

Throughout my childhood, I watched my parents try to become legal but to no avail. They lost their money to people they believed to be attorneys but who ultimately never helped. That meant my childhood was haunted by the fear that they would be deported.

For me, picking a college was really difficult. I wish I had had my parents there kind of supervising me. But I chose well. I did OK.

Neighbors broke the news that my parents had been taken away by immigration officers, and just like that, my stable family life was over.

My real story is this: I am the citizen daughter of immigrant parents who were deported when I was 14. My older brother was also deported.

Every day, children who are U.S. citizens are separated from their families as a result of immigration policies that need fixing.

I went through depression, which is something that we don't often talk about when we look at undocumented communities and deported families.

I want immigration reform to come into fruition, and I want it to be comprehensive, and I want it to have a path to citizenship, and I want to be involved politically every day.

I so desperately wanted to be honest, and I so desperately wanted to love myself and accept myself for who I was.

I don't think you're ever ready to read your life back to yourself and try to make it entertaining for others.

Even kids who haven't had firsthand experience with the immigration system, I want them to know how families are affected and what kind of system is in place.

I want to present the immigrant community in more of a real light.

My job as an actor is to be visible and to tell stories.

I am representing my community, in a sense, especially given the fact that there are not as many Latino actors out there.

As much as it's been difficult to tell my story over and over again, it has been the best thing that has ever happened to me.

My family is broken.

My parents instilled a lot of American values in me. They encouraged me to work hard and told me that anything was possible for me because I was a citizen.

Growing up without my parents by my side is a weight I still carry today.

We need to be investing in resources, like Women Step Forward, to provide immigrants with trusted information about their rights and options.

Deporting asylum seekers back to violence does not reflect the values of our country.

We should be a nation that welcomes immigrants, keeps families together, and ensures that everyone gets a fair day in court.

We have a lot of comments on the news, we have a lot of rhetoric over what an immigrant is and what a deportee is, but you don't hear any real stories. I don't think we ever had the chance to really tell our side.

I loved to sing and dance and play-act, and I always believed that my dream to become an actor would come true because my immigrant parents had taught me to believe in the American dream.

I dreamed of being an artist.

I always wanted to, to the smallest detail, make my parents proud.

I so desperately wanted to fit in. There was a trajectory, and obviously, our society tells us that you go to high school, you graduate, and then you go to college, and from there, you get an internship, you get a job, and some people study abroad, and there are so many things you see that you desperately want to be a part of.

I think people want immigration reform. I think people want to see a path for citizenship. I don't think we as a country want to discuss this in the way we do. I don't think we want to separate families. I don't think that's part of our values.

Some people have issues in their past that might make them tweak out at certain moments, but it's possible to snap back and be a real human being.

I would have had a much different story to tell if I had been imprisoned after being separated from my family, without a warm bed and only the cold faces of ICE agents and the crinkly feeling of a Mylar blanket.

All of the characters on 'Doom Patrol' explore traumatic pasts, how to deal with those pasts, and how that affects their present and their future.

When you watch 'Doom Patrol,' you'll see most of the characters are trying to run away from their feelings and their emotions, and the minute they take a second and look at themselves face to face, that's when things can actually get resolved and get one step closer to peace.

I want to be viewed like a serious actress, and I'm afraid that people are just going to see me as the poor little girl whose parents were deported when she was 14.

Once I started advancing in my career, I stopped wanting to hide from my reality.

Anybody who lives in Colombia knows that if you don't have any money - I tell you what - you don't have many options.