In memory of Marco Antonio Muñoz, a Honduran father who was separated from his wife and 3-year-old son after crossing the United States-Mexico border to seek asylum.
Mr Muñoz became distraught after his son was ripped from his arms. Later, Muñoz was found dead in a Texas jail, reportedly by suicide.
In support of the organizations that are working hard to reunite families, including:
In mountains of Guatemala, searching for parents deported from U.S. without children (Los Angeles Times, Aug 31 2018)
ReplyDelete“They tricked me. They said they would give him back to me when I was to be deported and they didn’t,” said Erik Castillo. “I want my son back. They did this to punish me. Those people are awful.”
Parents Deported Without Their Kids Face Untenable Choice (The California Report, Oct 10 2018)
ReplyDeleteAttorney Erika Pinheiro from Al Otro Lado, whose attorneys recently traveled across El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to meet with dozens of deported parents whose kids are still in the U.S., said that many of the parents recounted being pressured or misled into accepting deportation after their children were taken from them.
Inside The Desperate Search For 343 Parents Deported Without Their Kids (Huffington Post, Sep 02 2018)
ReplyDeleteJustice in Motion, a U.S.-based organization, has been working with a network of lawyers and advocates in Central America to track down parents for whom the government does not have sufficient contact information.
“You would have the expectation that our government would have done a better job at asking basic questions of the parents before they took their kids away,” said Nan Schivone, Justice in Motion’s legal manager. “It’s really shocking and, frankly, unconscionable that we are even in this situation to begin with.”
AP Investigation: Deported parents may lose kids to adoption (Associated Press, Oct 9 2018)
ReplyDeleteThe federal government should offer all deported parents the chance to take their children with them, but Araceli Ramos said she was ordered to sign a waiver to leave her daughter Alexa behind. "The agent put his hand on mine, he held my hand, he forced me to sign," she said... "If they give our children up for adoption without our permission, that isn't justice. They are our children, not theirs."
Thousands more migrant kids separated from parents under Trump than previously reported (NBC News Jan 19 2019)
ReplyDelete"A government report says thousands more migrant children were separated from parents under Trump than reported and whether they were reunified is unknown."
Children with relatives in the US who are willing to sponsor them are still being detained for needlessly lengthy periods instead of being released to their family members:
ReplyDeleteMore than 2,000 child migrants, many of whom have been separated from their families by U.S. immigration officials, are in a detention center in Homestead, Florida. This detention center is not subject to agreements that ordinarily ensure that licensing and other standards are met.