Tag: Family Reunification

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RAICES is offering $20 million to the government to post ‘bonds’ for all separated families

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Originally published by CNN

For weeks, money has been pouring into RAICES to help reunite families separated at the US-Mexico border.

Today, the Texas nonprofit announced what it’s going to do with the funds: It will march to Capitol Hill with a $20 million check to demand that immigrant mothers be released from detention centers.
“Bonds often cost between $5 -10,000 so our $20m can pay approximately 2,500 in one go,” the group said in a statement.
To be sure, the move is a symbolic gesture. It’s meant to highlight how the government has been slow to meet its Tuesday deadline to reunite children separated from parents who were caught crossing illegally at the border.
About 2,500 kids have been separated from their parents, RAICES estimates. Roughly half of the children under 5 years old will be back with their moms and dads by the deadline, but the Trump administration is still not sure when the rest will be reunified.
“By offering this bond payment, RAICES hopes to help the administration comply with its court ordered obligations,” the group said.

How RAICES is using the money

RAICES, pronounced ruh-EE-ces, is an acronym for the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services. It offers free and low-cost legal services to immigrants and refugees.
Since the White House announced its “zero-tolerance” prosecution policy, more than one million people around the world have donated to fund-raising campaigns supporting the group, it said.
RAICES has said it was using the money for legal services and reunification efforts for immigrant families. It also said it would start a “hiring spree” and create a reunification fund to partner with other organizations.
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Why it’s taking so long for the government to reunite the families it separated

Originally published by CNN

The government is still scrambling to comply with a court order and come up with a reunion process for thousands of immigrant parents and kids it separated at the border — largely because officials didn’t have a specific plan for reuniting families when the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy began.

Two weeks after a judge ordered officials to reunite the families they’d split up, most of the parents and kids remain separated. With key deadlines looming, the government says it’s doing everything it can but in some cases will need more time than the court has given them.
Immigrant rights groups say the delay is a clear case of actions speaking louder than words. They say officials recklessly split up families without any idea of how to bring them back together.
Here are some reasons it’s taking so long:

The government separated families without a specific plan for reuniting them.

And Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar basically admitted as much last week when he told reporters that his agency’s system of shelters for unaccompanied minors wasn’t designed to track what happened before kids ended up in custody.
“New efforts have had to be made to specifically determine whether a child was separated from a parent at the border, and to gather additional information about that purported parent,” he said.
In court filings, officials have detailed the extensive lengths they’re going to as a result of the judge’s order. And Judge Dana Sabraw acknowledged their efforts on Friday, noting that the government had “devoted enormous resources in an attempt to comply, to reunify, and to make this happen.” But even so, the judge hasn’t granted any extensions on his deadlines — yet.

Some parents have been released from ICE custody.

Authorities should have no trouble meeting the judge’s deadlines when it comes to reuniting parents and kids under 5 years old who remain in custody, Justice Department attorney Sarah Fabian said last week. But she said they might need more time to reunite those children with parents who are no longer detained.
“If we’re not aware of where the parent is,” she said, “I can’t commit to saying that reunification will occur before the deadline.”
The ACLU’s lead attorney in the family separations case has been adamant that the court already gave officials plenty of time — and that the government should know the whereabouts of parents released from custody.
“It’s startling that the record-keeping is not there. I don’t understand why they don’t know where the parent is. When they release a parent, they don’t just let them walk out the door with no record. So there must be an address,” the ACLU’s Lee Gelernt said. “If the government is having trouble tracking down the parent, then private groups and advocates will do it.”

And some parents have been deported.

So far, we know at least 12 parents were deported without their kids, according to the latest information released in court.
The total number of parents who were separated from their kids and then deported without them is likely far larger, since officials were only speaking about parents connected to the relatively small group of about 100 kids under age 5.
In a court filing last week the government said it would need more time to reunite deported parents with their kids “given the complexities involved in locating individuals who have been removed, determining whether they wish to be reunified with their child, and facilitating such a reunification outside of the United States.”
Officials have said parents deported without their kids likely requested that their children remain in the US. Immigrant advocacy groups say they’re concerned that some parents may have been coerced or may have signed documents they didn’t understand.

HHS is conducting DNA tests to match up kids and parents.

Officials are still scrambling to sort out how many kids in custody were separated from their parents, and to confirm parent-child relationships. One method they’re using: DNA tests.
The government says this takes time, but is a necessary step.
“HHS is working diligently to minimize the burdens of confirming parentage, and is expediting DNA verification. But given the possibility of false claims of parentage, confirming parentage is critical to ensure that children are returned to their parents, not to potential traffickers,” a government court filing said last week.
Gelernt argued it shouldn’t be necessary in all cases.
On Tuesday, Sabraw said he’d allow the government to conduct DNA testing “when necessary, when there is a legitimate, good-faith concern about parentage, or if there is a legitimate concern that the government will not meet the reunification deadline.”

Releasing a child from custody is a lengthy process.

The ACLU attorney has argued that officials are going overboard in following “lengthy, cumbersome procedures,” given that they’re the ones who separated these parents and kids in the first place. The government has maintained that it has stringent steps it must follow to protect the health and safety of children in its care before releasing them.
Among them:
• Conducting background checks on sponsors, which includes extensive paperwork
• Making a “suitability” determination on whether the child will be well taken care of
• Potential home studies to make sure kids will be in a safe environment
“Our process may not be as quick as some would like, but there is no question that it is protecting children,” said Chris Meekins, chief of staff for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at HHS.
Sabraw said at a hearing Tuesday that the government should take a more streamlined approach in reuniting parents and children rather than following the steps it normally takes to place unaccompanied minors with sponsors.
“The idea of an application process doesn’t fit in this context,” the judge said. “The parent has a right to be reunified and it’s the government’s obligation to make it so.”

Read more:https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/09/politics/family-separation-reunion-hurdles/index.html

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Lucky few migrant families to be reunited Tuesday

Originally published by CNN

A few dozen immigrant families are expected to be reunited by a court deadline Tuesday, as the fates of thousands more remain in limbo.

The deadline comes amid heightened stakes. A separate federal judge late Monday flatly rejected the administration’s attempt to rewrite the rules for detaining families in order to hold them indefinitely, calling the request “cynical” and “wholly without merit.”
The children who are addressed under the Tuesday deadline are all under age 5 and have been held by the government for weeks or months after being separated from their parents at the border.
However, the government admits it will be able to meet the deadline only for just over half of them in this group, and they’re just a fraction of the thousands of young immigrants still in custody apart from their parents, many of whom are detained and separated from family as a byproduct of the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy.

A Justice Department attorney told a federal judge Monday that roughly 54 of nearly 100 youngest children are slated to be reunited with their parents by Tuesday’s deadline.

In a court hearing Monday, District Judge Dana Sabraw said he was nonetheless “encouraged” by the “progress,” saying he was confident that “many of these families” will meet the deadline. “Then we’ll have a very clear understanding as to who has not been reunited, why not and what time frame will be in place,” Sabraw added.
New deadlines likely to be set
The attorneys are due back in court Tuesday for an update — and likely to set new deadlines for the roughly half of the children who the government does not expect to reunite on time.
In filings Monday night, the attorneys for the government and for the immigrants represented by the American Civil Liberties Union filed a report for the judge on where they agree and where they don’t. The filing offers some agreement on matters like DNA testing, background checks for parents and limiting home studies, but the judge will have to rule on issues including the extent to which the government investigates parents before their children are released to them.
The main issue is what procedures the government will follow before it reunites families. The government argues it must follow all the steps it would if the child were unaccompanied to ensure the safety of the child.
But the ACLU argues that anything but a streamlined process will result in needless delays, adding that because the government separated the parents and children in the first place, it should expedite their reunion.
“The government should not be allowed to delay reunification to conduct procedures that would not have been used if the child had not been forcibly taken from the parent,” the ACLU wrote in the filing. “If a class member parent and child had showed up at the border together, and had not been separated, then the parent would not be required to undergo the extensive procedures proposed by the Government to maintain custody of the child.”
What about the other immigrant children?
Another key deadline comes at the end of the month. The government has thousands more children 5 and older in its custody who it will have to reunite with parents by July 26, but the Monday hearing did not cover that group. The judge and attorneys did express hope that the efforts to reunify the younger families will help speed up the process for the older group.

The plan for Tuesday’s reunions is for the children to be released to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which runs the adult detention centers where their parents are being held. Once the children are handed over to their custody, ICE will release the families together. This plan bypasses the lengthy “sponsor” process that is required to release an unaccompanied immigrant child from Health and Human Services custody.
Only about 54 children who have parents currently in government custody are expected to be reunited on Tuesday, though another five who are waiting on unresolved background check issues could come together in time.
The rest largely either have parents already deported, already released somewhere in the US, or in federal or state criminal custody.
CNN’s Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.

Read more:https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/10/politics/immigration-deadline-family-reunification/index.html

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A Judge Just Rejected the Trump Administration’s Request to Keep Some Families Separated

Buena Ventura Martin-Godinez, right, stands with her daughter Janne after being reunited at Miami International Airport, Sunday, July 1, 2018, in Miami. Martin crossed the border into the United States from Mexico in May with her son, fleeing violence in Guatemala. Her husband crossed two weeks later with their 7-year-old daughter Janne. All were caught by the Border Patrol, and were separated. Her daughter was released Sunday from a child welfare agency in Michigan. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

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Originally published by Mother Jones

A federal judge has rejected the Trump administration’s argument that it shouldn’t have to reunite children with parents who have been deported. During a court hearing Friday afternoon, Judge Dana Sabraw ruled that parents who had already been removed from the country prior to his injunction blocking President Donald Trump’s family separation policy must still be reunited with their children.

The court hearing—part of a dramatic legal battle between the American Civil Liberties Union and the administration—followed Sabraw’s order last week requiring the government to quickly reunite separated families. Sabraw also ordered the government to produce a list of children under five who may still be separated from their parents by Saturday.

Sarah Fabian, the Justice Department attorney representing the government, told Sabraw that there are about 100 children under age five who may have been separated from their parents and who are being held in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, also known as ORR. Eighty-three of those children have been linked to 86 parents. Of those 86 parents, 46 are in immigration detention facilities, 19 have been released from the custody of US Customs and Immigration Enforcement, and 19 have already been deported. The government says it will not reunite two parents with their children because of those parents’ alleged criminal histories.

The government says it has 16 children under age five in its custody who it has not been able to link to an adult. The government acknowledges that its records contain indications that those children had been separated from their parents by US immigration officials.

The government does not yet know how many parents were separated from children between the ages of 5 and 18, according to court documents.

Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s attorney in the case, said his group strongly believes the injunction should not be altered. The judge’s order requires the government to reunite children under five with their parents by Tuesday. It gives the government until July 26 to reunite older children with their parents.

The Justice Department filed court documents Thursday night stating that it will likely not be able to meet those deadlines. It is blaming the delay on ORR policies designed to prevent children in its custody from being placed with human traffickers and other adults who may pose a threat to children. Gelernt pointed out that those requirements were designed to protect children who arrive at the border alone, not those who were taken from their parents by the government. He said he doesn’t know of any child advocacy group that believes ORR should go through those lengthy procedures in this situation. “It just doesn’t make sense,” he continued. “You’ve taken the child from the parent. They need to give to the child back.”

The Trump administration says it is currently testing the DNA of parents and children to ensure that children are released to the correct adults. The administration stated in a court filing that determining which parents were separated from children “is extraordinarily time and resource intensive”—yet another sign that it did not keep adequate records to easily track the families it was separating at the border. It also acknowledged that ORR’s databases were not designed to facilitate the reunification of families separated by the government.

Read more:https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/07/ice-separated-families-judge-trump-1/

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DOJ to reunite fewer than half of separated children aged under 5 by deadline, ACLU says

Originally published by CNN

A list provided by the government suggests that fewer than half the migrant children younger than 5 years old who have been forcibly separated from their parents will be reunited with their families by Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said.

A court order issued June 26 set a deadline of July 10 to reunite the roughly 100 young children with their parents.
On Friday, Justice Department attorney Sarah Fabian told a court that officials might need additional time to track down dozens of parents who are no longer in custody — including 19 who were already deported. Fabian said officials should have no problem reuniting children and the 46 parents who remain in ICE custody.
Government says it may need more time to reunite some separated families

Court will reconvene on Monday.
In a media release Sunday, the ACLU said that the government had “initially provided incomplete information” by a Saturday night deadline to list the children under 5 it had forcibly separated from parents and a revised list provided Sunday gave the names of 102 children.
“It appears likely that less than half will be reunited by Tuesday’s court-ordered deadline,” the group said.
A July 26 deadline remains in place for the reunification of all migrant children separated from their families by the Trump administration.
“It’s extremely disappointing that the Trump administration looks like it will fail to reunite even half the children under 5 with their parents. These kids have already suffered so much because of this policy, and every extra day apart just adds to that pain,” Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in the statement.
But an administration official said efforts to reunite the children are “highly encouraging.”
“Consistent with the court’s optimism and encouragement, the administration has worked tirelessly since Friday’s status conference toward the shared goal of promptly reunifying families while ensuring the safety of the children,” the administration official said.
“The results of that work have been highly encouraging, and the Department of Justice is eager to present its progress to the court on Monday and to chart a path forward to safely reunifying other families expeditiously.”

Where are the parents?

Friday’s hearing was the latest in an ACLU lawsuit over the administration’s family separations. The case includes a broader group of thousands of other children and parents, but the hearing focused largely on the pressing deadline for children under 5.
The Justice Department attorney provided the most detailed description officials have released so far about this particular group of immigrant children who were separated from their parents. Of the roughly 100 kids, Fabian said:
• 83 kids have been linked to 86 parents.
• 16 kids have not yet been linked with parents.
• 46 of those parents remain in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
• 19 of those parents have been released from ICE custody.
• 19 of those parents have been removed from the United States.
• Two of the parents have criminal histories that will prevent officials from reuniting them with their children.

Lengthy process of reunification

 

Officials have been marshaling “significant resources” as they work to comply with the court order, Fabian told the court Friday.
But she said their efficiency is hampered by requirements in the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which sets out requirements officials have to follow when they release children into someone’s custody.
It’s one reason, she said, why officials are taking such painstaking steps to confirm parent-child relationships using methods that include DNA testing.
Gelernt took issue with the government’s DNA testing, saying it should be used as “a last resort” and pointing to privacy concerns.
He argued the government does not have to follow such “lengthy, cumbersome procedures” to reunite separated families.

Read more:https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/09/politics/justice-department-families-deadline/index.html

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A Better Way To Protest Trump’s War On Immigrants

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Originally published by The NY Yorker

Tens of thousands of people in more than seven hundred American cities marched on Saturday. They shouted various chants and carried different signs, ranging from “Protect families” to “Abolish ice,” but the unifying slogan—and hashtag—of the rallies was “Families Belong Together.” It was printed on banners, drawn on signs, and emblazoned on T-shirts in a multitude of designs. It was the wrong slogan.

The demonstrations were organized by Families Belong Together, a newly formed coalition that includes MoveOn and the A.C.L.U. and has attracted dozens of other organizations that have put their names and efforts behind the protests. One can divine the origins of the slogan from both the timing of the protests and the breadth of the coalition. “Families Belong Together” must have seemed like a simple slogan that people across the political spectrum could agree on. Even better, this slogan foregrounded the humanity of the people on whose behalf protesters were unfurling banners.

The idea that belonging to a family is what makes people human has long been prominent in American politics. When the state recognizes certain types of families as families—as when same-sex marriage became the law of the land—it is a significant moment of enfranchisement for the people affected. But other families are denied recognition because they are too unconventional, too poor, or deemed not good enough at creating the right kind of family; often, these families are denied the possibility of staying together. But the “Families Belong Together” slogan of the demonstrations seemed suspended outside this political context. The protests were fuelled by the raw heartbreak of watching children separated from their parents. The demand that families be kept intact would appear to be one that everyone–even President Trump himself—can support.

A good slogan is essential to protest. But what is the purpose of protest? One of its functions is, certainly, to mobilize people, to draw the maximum number into the streets both to see like-minded individuals and to send a message to those who may think differently. The messages may vary. They may be visions. They may be demands. In the case of the Families Belong Together marches, they were less a demand than a reminder. By the time people marched, Trump had already signed his executive order ending family separation at the border. Surely, with a President who lies all the time, it is useful for tens of thousands of people to remind him of their expectations. It is also essential to demand that children who remain separated from their parents be reunited with them. But asking for something that has already been promised seems like a waste of the potential of massive protest.

The news stations reported the marches largely as protests against Trump’s immigration policies. Tweets and Facebook posts by participants, on the other hand, reported that they were “marching for families.” Speaking in Washington, D.C., Lin-Manuel Miranda explained, “We are here because there are parents right now who can’t sing lullabies to their kids.” He then sang a lullaby. But what the news coverage inadvertently pointed out—and what the protests themselves largely obscured—is that the protests happened because the American government is waging a war on immigrants. It is portraying them as enemies, animals, criminals, and pests. It is deporting them, detaining them, and interning them. The separation of children and parents is the most emotionally affecting tip of the terrifying, inhumane iceberg of American immigration policy.

The separation policy was so egregious that it managed to mobilize a depressed civil society in a way that mass deportations and even the Supreme Court’s approval of Trump’s travel ban did not. But it seems like a moral mistake to frame the protests in terms of a small part of a problem that is redefining American politics. It is also a tactical mistake. For the question is likely to arise soon: Where do these families belong, together—perhaps in indefinite detention, internment camps, or deportation proceedings?

Read more:https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/a-better-way-to-protest-trumps-war-on-immigrants

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Guatemalan mom reunites with her children in N.Y. after border separation

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Originally published by USA Today

Yeni Maricela Gonzalez Garcia, a Guatemalan woman separated from her children at the Arizona border weeks ago,  had a “very emotional” reunion with them at an East Harlem children’s center Tuesday morning.

With more than a dozen members of the media and others swarming an East Harlem children’s center, Gonzalez Garcia lowered her head and was escorted in with a local congressman and her lawyer, Jose Xavier Orochena.

Gonzalez Garcia arrived shortly before 9 a.m. flanked by her attorney, supporters and elected officials, and emerged after spending one hour with her children to address more than two dozen media outlets camped outside the Cayuga Centers facility.

She held a lollipop, a present from her daughter, who had not seen her mother since they were separated near the U.S. border in May.

“The day they took them away from me I told them I promise that I’m going to fight for you and I’m going to find you,” an emotional Gonzalez Garcia said. “Here I am.”

Released on bond from the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona last week, Gonzalez Garcia arrived in New York on Monday evening, thanks to a fundraising effort and a crew of volunteers who took turns at the wheel to make the four-day drive from Eloy.

Her lawyer, Jose Xavier Ochorena, said the children must remain at the Cayuga facility for now, but is allowing Gonzalez Garcia to remain there with the children until 5 p.m., and she will be allowed to return every day to spend time with them.

Ochorena said two applications have been filed for a placement for the children, one on behalf of Gonzalez Garcia, who must remain in New York during the process, and a second by an aunt in North Carolina.

The children will be place in whichever home is approved first, Orochena said. However, the application process requires fingerprint checks for the applicants and others who live in the home. The fingerprint checks are outsourced to a private company that Orochena said is so overwhelmed with applications that the results could take two months.

“She will not leave the city without her children,” Orochena said.

Long journey

Gonzalez Garcia crossed the U.S. border with her three children on May 19, two days before they were taken from her as part of President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance policy of removing immigrant children from their parents after they are detained.

At least four residential facilities in Westchester County are housing immigrant children separated from their families.

Gonzalez Garcia’s efforts to be reunited with her children are part of a remarkable journey, with volunteers raising $7,500 for her release from the Eloy Detention Center, and then taking turns driving different legs on her trip to New York.

Behind Gonzalez Garcia’s journey from the border is a nationwide team of volunteers.

Julie Schwietert Collazo was listening to her local NPR radio station in New York City on June 22 when she heard Orochena discussing the case on the air.

“What Jose was saying without saying it, was how would someone who came here with nothing come up with the money to pay the bond, to make it to New York, and then be able to stay here,” Schwietert Collazo said.

She started a GoFundMe page and began to raise money. A total of 491 donations were received, in increments as small as $5, with a few $1,000 donations. Then she reached out and put together a network of drivers to get Gonzalez Garcia to her children.

“Because she didn’t have an ID, we didn’t want her to be traveling unaccompanied on a Greyhound bus or on Amtrak to New York,” Schwietert Collazo said.

On Tuesday, Schwietert Collazo was with Gonzalez Garcia as she reunited with her children, part of a small group of supporters who included U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who represents the East Harlem district.

“We started something a week ago yesterday,” Schwietert Collazo said. “It took a lot of faith and it took a lot of 18-hour days and coordination. I’m just so relieved and gratified that she’s made it here, but we also know that we have a long way to go.”

Gonzalez Garcia remained emotional throughout the press conference outside Cayuga, thanking and hugging Orochena, Espaillat and other supporters.

“I’m very happy because after more than a month I’ve been reunited with my children,” she said in Spanish. “I feel very happy because I just saw my children and my daughter gave me this lollipop. My heart is overwhelmed because I was able to see my children.”

“This has been the worst thing that has happened in my life, to be separated from my children,” Gonzalez Garcia added.

Read more:https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/07/03/guatemala-woman-reunited-children/755879002/

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Nonprofit group sets up a hotline to help reunite immigrant families

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Originally published by The Washington Post

A Texas nonprofit has established a hotline to help reunite immigrant families who were separated at the border under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, a move that comes amid frustration with the pace of the government’s own reunification efforts.

The new “National Families Together Hotline” will be staffed by volunteers who have been trained to ask for the information they need to find detained parents, according to the nonprofit Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES).

Once parents are located, RAICES staff will help them connect with pro bono legal services.

“Reuniting the families separated by the current administration’s ‘zero tolerance policy’ has become essentially a game of hide and seek,” said Jonathan Ryan, executive director of RAICES.

“We have had to resort to becoming private investigators to find these families and reunite them while ensuring they have access to pro bono legal representation.”

A Homeland Security spokeswoman referred questions to the Department of Health and Human Services. A spokesman for that agency did not immediately comment.

Both agencies run their own hotlines for parents and children in federal custody, but advocates have complained that there are long wait times and that even when children know where their parents are being held, it is difficult to call them while they are incarcerated.

The toll-free hotline run by RAICES can be reached at (866)-ESTAMOS, or 866-378-2667. It will be staffed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central, but callers will be able to leave voice mails at any time.

Another nonprofit, the New York-based Vera Institute of Justice, iscoordinating a separate effort to help detained parents find their children.

In early May, the Trump administration announced it would prosecute all illegal border-crossers under a new “zero tolerance” policy. Because children cannot be jailed, the new policy meant some migrant children — including some infants and toddlers — were taken from their parents at the border.

The administration reversed itself after images and audio of distressed children sparked a backlash, but it announced no clear plan to reunify the at least 2,500 boys and girls who remain separated from their mothers and fathers.

This week, a federal judge set the first timeline for reunification, ordering the federal government to return all migrant children separated from their parents to their families within 30 days — and within just 14 days for children under age 5. Advocates say they still have not been told how the Department of Homeland Security, which detains parents, and the Department of Health and Human Services, which cares for separated children, intend to comply with the court’s order.

In addition to establishing a hotline, RAICES — the beneficiary of a viral social media campaign to help separated families that has so far raised more than $20 million — is also coordinating an effort to create a database of separated children, based on reports from lawyers who are representing them.

So far, the nonprofit knows of 453 children who have been unable to find their parents. The youngest is just two months old, and the average age is eight.

Read more:https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/immigration/nonprofit-sets-up-hotline-to-help-reunite-immigrant-families/2018/06/28/07920f46-7ade-11e8-80be-6d32e182a3bc_story.html?utm_term=.155757adc988

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Salvadoran Father Reunited With Daughter After Month-Long Separation

Originally published by The NY Times

 Salvadoran fisherman Arnovis Guidos was reunited with his six-year-old daughter late on Thursday a month after the girl was taken from him by U.S. authorities, leaving him with no idea where she was.

Deported from the United States last week, the 26-year-old Guidos said he was detained with his daughter Meybelin a day after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on May 26.

The two were promptly separated by U.S. officials, and he did not discover where she was again until he was back in his violent, impoverished homeland, which he said he had fled with her because of death threats from the notorious Barrio-18 gang.

Guidos told reporters both he and his daughter felt relieved to be back together again, though he left quickly from the airport in San Luis Talpa, south of San Salvador.

The girl left by a separate exit, and Guidos said authorities had recommended that she not speak to the media.

Frustrated that immigrants from Central America were often released into the United States to await court hearings, U.S. President Donald Trump implemented a “zero tolerance” policy in April seeking to prosecute all adults who entered illegally.

That included those traveling with children, dramatically increasing the number of families separated at the border.

Trump reversed course last week, ordering an end to the separations. But the government still had 2,047 children in custody as of Tuesday, a senior official said.

Guidos was accompanied by relatives bearing “welcome home” signs and gifts for the girl, who had spent the past month in a detention center in Phoenix, according to her father.

Menaced by Barrio-18 and rival outfit Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, El Salvador is one of the most violent countries in the world. Thousands of Central American migrants seeking to enter the United States say they must flee or risk violent death.

Increasing numbers seek asylum in the United States, but that has become tougher under the Trump crackdown.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visited Guatemala on Thursday, urging the leaders of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to end the “exodus” of illegal migration.

Read more:https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/06/29/world/americas/29reuters-usa-immigration-elsalvador.html

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Pro-Bono Immigration Lawyers Raised $19 Million to Reunite Families Separated Along the Border

Originally published by MS Magazine

The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) raised over $19 million in the span of a few days after the Trump administration’s so-called zero tolerance policy at the U.S./Mexico border sparked international outcry and left over 2,000 children separated from their parents, many of whom were seeking asylum, and detained within cages in tent cities and vacant Walmart buildings.

Since 1987, RAICES has been providing pro-bono legal representation to refugee and immigrant minors, adults and families in federal custody. Last year, with a budget of $7 million, RAICES was able to close 51,000 Pro Bono cases, and released up to 80 families through their Bond Fund. “Children with representation are five times more likely to be successful in their case that children who go to court alone,” RAICES explains on their website. “Representation is often the last line of safety for children very vulnerable to exploitation by both a system and a country hostile to their presence.”

Although Trump’s separation policy has since been halted due to mounting political pressure, the fate of those children and the likelihood of family reunifications moving forward remains largely unknown. What is clear is that the families torn apart by Trump’s policies were denied justice—and the children waiting to go home to their parents will likely carry lasting trauma from the administration’s xenophobic practices.

“When children get this afraid, these stress hormones invade every organ,” pediatrician Dr. Martha Griffin told MSNBC. “This hormone changes everything. If children separated for just 72 hours, this is an eternity of terror for a child. It will have lasting affects. They can have chronic heart disease, learning problems, behavioral problems, obesity, substance abuse, hypertension, increased risk of suicidality.”

In response to the family separation policy, RAICES started an #EndFamilySeparation campaign on Facebook—and within days, had raised over $5 million dollars. With over $19 million now in their bank accounts, RAICES went on Facebook Live to explain to their community members how the funds will be allocated.

In the video, staff pledged to prioritize family reunification, including locating the families and the children, and explained that they are currently brainstorming strategies. They also committed to reopening the Legal Representation Advocacy Fund (LEAF) Program, which provides no-cost legal representation to children in Texas, and increasing support for the Bond Fund, which covers costs for families in order to help them be released from ICE custody, and the Post Relief Volunteer Project and Accompaniment Network, which helps undocumented immigrants understand their rights. The organization also plans to hire more legal assistants, outreach workers and attorneys; produce a series of podcasts that feature Asylum seekers and refugees; update their website to account for this sudden boom in traffic, ramp up volunteer trainings and other programs and provide critical social services and donated items to immigrant families.

“We are feeling overwhelmed by the incredible generosity,” Director of Outreach Barbara Peña said in the video. “Thank you. This is typically work that doesn’t happen in the spotlight.”

Read more:http://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/06/22/pro-bono-immigration-lawyers-raised-19-million-reunite-families-separated-along-border/