María, a Honduran mother, an asylum seeker living in San Bernardino, lived a week in terror, without knowing the whereabouts of her two minor children whom she had brought from Honduras and lost track of them when crossing the Rio Grande and surrender to the immigration authorities on the southern border of the country.
It was the immigration lawyer, Francés Arroyo, whom she turned to desperate and on the verge of a nervous breakdown, who gave her the resources to locate them .
“I found out that they are in Texas, but I haven’t been able to talk to them and I don’t know exactly where they have them. The immigration agents only called me to speak with my 9-year-old sister Ester Yanet who is with them. They told me that she was very depressed and fainting. They gave me a minute to reassure her, ”she says.
Knowing that her children are in the hands of the Border Patrol brought her great relief. “I am already at peace. At least I know that they are safe and that nothing bad has happened to them. ”
A few weeks after President Joe Biden was sworn in as President of the United States, an exodus of unaccompanied children from Central America to the country. The minors arrive alone or in groups. Some of the children are only 1 year old. Only in February 9 entered, 400 minors, but until April 5, more were kept in custody 17, 000.
The challenge for Biden is to keep the children in a healthy environment while they are processed by immigration and handed over to their families who live in the country. But there are reports that they are crammed into cages.
María de 37 year-old who asked not to reveal his real name for fear that he affect your asylum process, you came to the United States 6 years ago. “I suffered domestic violence,” he says.
Mother of four children, who now have 16, 7, 10 Y 14 years, he left Honduras, carrying his youngest daughter. Much to their regret, the other children stayed with their father. “When I managed to cross the border, I was detained for a month and a half in a shelter, and for three years I lived with an electronic bracelet tied to my ankle.”
She found refuge in the house of her sister who already lived here, and later she moved to an apartment for rent. At the beginning of his asylum process, he obtained a work permit, which allowed him to have a job. “I am an employee in a warehouse of a large commercial store.”
In 2018 ordered to bring his eldest son, but he always lived with the earring of his other two children who stayed in Honduras.
“This year there was an opportunity to bring them. Supported by a ‘coyote’, my dad – from 53 years old – brought them and my 9-year-old sister. ”
The trip until reaching Reynosa, Tamaulipas on the border between Mexico and the United States, it took them 25 days.
“The coyote transported my children and others children in a trailer The 10 in March, they had an accident in Puebla that almost killed them. And when they were about to cross the border, my father called me to tell me that he had to separate from my children because the ‘coyote’ had asked him to do so. She begged me not to worry, that the children would be fine, because a less than 16 years that I was in the group I was going to take care of them. ‘Don’t worry,’ I kept repeating. My father told me that he told the children when they were crossing, walk, don’t stop, but I don’t have more details about how the crossing was. ”
The last day of April was the last time she heard from her children, her father and little sister. “After spending days without eating or sleeping, my father called me to tell me that he lost a week in the desert and does not know how he returned to Mexico. His feet were covered in sores. He says that no matter how much he walked, he could not find the Border Patrol to turn himself in and ask for asylum. ”
However, María did not know more about her two children. “ I was with a broken soul, with an exaggerated anguish. He no longer wanted to watch the news. Many colleagues showed me ugly things that have happened to migrant children . To no longer know, I stopped going to work for a week. ”
Her dream – says this Honduran mother – is to meet them very soon.
“ One like Father or mother knows that they are taking a risk by sending them in with a ‘coyote’, but I accepted it because I am desperate to see them. I put my faith and trust in God that everything will be fine. ”
Is it worth the Is it worth risking everything to come to the United States?… “Of course, because in Honduras nobody’s rights are respected. Violence is normal from your husband, from your brother, from anyone. One longs to live in peace, without fear. ”
Lawyer Arroyo gave the mother the phone number 1 – 800 – 203 – 7071 and the website: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/orr of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to look for her children.
“This is how she found out that they were being processed by Migration. Based on the Flores Agreement, this is a process that should not take more than 20 days, and that requires that children be in refugee centers before being handed over to their parents or the adult who will take care of them ”, he explains.
“The case of María’s children reflects the humanitarian crisis we are experiencing on the border with thousands of unaccompanied children who are brought by coyotes, but it is an obligation of the authorities to process them as soon as possible and deliver them to their families in the United States ”, adds /
Once they meet with their parents, the defender considers that the immigration option for these minors will be the special juvenile immigrant status, a visa for minors who have been victims of abuse or abandonment by a parent.
Peter Schey, president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law already leading lawyer of the Flores Agreement with the federal government in 1997, after 12 years of litigation, expressed frustration and disappointment at the slow manner in which the Biden government has prosecuted children and the levels of overcrowding they have kept them at due to lack of space .
“We have urged the Biden government to sign the extension of the Flores Agreement, which has already been completed since July of last year, and we have not been able to get them to sign them. ”
By 21 years, this The agreement has set national standards for the detention of thousands of accompanied and unaccompanied minors.
“Protect minors by demanding humane treatment and placing them in facilities licensed by specialized state agencies. ace in the care of minors, as quickly as possible. The agreement requires that unless it is a risk to them, migrant minors must be reunited with their families in the United States as soon as possible. ”