I analyzed interviews (n = 10) of women recently deported from the United States of America to Mexico, exploring what women experienced immediately after deportation. The women who were residing in a short-term shelter in Nogales, Mexico, described their greatest stressors and sources of strength. Women identified the border crossing experience, apprehension, detention, and family separation due to deportation as stressors. Sources of strength included God and family. Irregular migration is not unique between the United States and Mexico. Women migrate in search of work, education, and safety. I offer these women's stories as exemplars and this study as one to be replicated with women in other contexts across the globe. © 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

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education law human detention Stress, Psychological mental stress Legislation as Topic Mexico qualitative research desert interview United States Humans family psychology Interviews as Topic female safety Mexican clinical article Women migration Emigration and Immigration participatory research Community-Based Participatory Research Transients and Migrants