'Orange Is the New Black' Actress Diane Guerrero Speaks About Pain of Deportation

Diane Guerrero, a U.S. actress with Colombian roots, has written a novel about her childhood experience with being separated from her family due to their immigration status.

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"In The Country We Love: My Family Divided" details the day when, at 14-years-old, her parents and brother were arrested and deported while she was in school. Guerrero was born in the U.S., and was the only member of her family able to stay. She depended on the kindness of family friends to continue her education.

"In a nation that values keeping families together and safeguarding children, I was invisible," Guerrero told NBC News in an interview. "Either the immigration officials didn't see me or they chose to turn their heads. I'll never know which. But I do know that as Americans, we can do better than that. We can extend greater compassion. And we can push our leaders to protect the most vulnerable among us."

The actress has since shot to fame with roles in Netflix's "Orange is the New Black" and "Jane the Virgin," but she says that the psychological trauma of separation severely affected her formative years. "All those years of that mentality, of staying quiet, of being fearful, of not telling anybody about what was going on," she said. "It's gonna come out in different ways. And depression was one of them."

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This is an issue that needs to be given more attention in ongoing debates on the subject, along with the humanity of undocumented families.

"There are real families who experience the same thing as a documented family," said Guerrero. "They experience love and loss, and they have a lot to lose as well. And there are a lot of citizen children like me who were left behind, and their lives are important too."

"In The Country We Love: My Family Divided" will be released May 6, 2015.