Judge orders the Trump administration to allow migrants to return to fix their asylum situation and reunite with their children in the US.
Not even in dreams Selvin imagined that he would return to the United States and reunite with his son Selvin Jr., after being separated almost two years ago.
"I never expected it. The reunion was a very special moment because I could hug my son and say, I love you, I love you. You feel great happiness that is inexplicable”Said Selvin to The opinion.
At the end of January, Selvin and eight other parents who were separated and deported without their children on the southern border with Mexico under the Zero Tolerance policy of the Trump administration, returned to the country to reunite with their children and seek asylum within the country.
A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) got the district court judge Dana Sabraw to determine that these parents were forced to sign their deportation, when immigration officials gave them inaccurate and misleading information, so They were deported illegally.
As a result, the judge ordered the Trump administration to guarantee the return of these parents to the United States.
The parents returned by plane to Los Angeles where they were received by government officials, religious leaders and community members.
Selvin met his son Selvin Jr., 18, who was 16 when they were separated. "I thank God very much because now I'm going to start healing the wound of separation," said this father whose greatest dream is to achieve asylum in the US.
38 years old, remember that separation and deportation affected them a lot. "It was a very difficult time," he recalls.
Father and son, originally from Guatemala, had left their country because of threats of crime. They entered through McAllen, Texas where they applied for asylum on May 18, 2018.
The response of the migration authorities was the separation. "My son was sent to a shelter where he spent six months before being handed over to a nephew, and they put me in jail until July 5, 2018 when they deported me", He says.
His return was possible thanks to the efforts of several organizations such as Al Otro Lado (AOL), Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP), De Anda Law, Kids In Need of Defense (KIND), Justice in Motion, Milbank LLP, and the Women's Refugee Commission .
"It will take years to amend the damage done to these parents and their children," said Carol Anne Donohoe, a lawyer for the family reunification team at the Other Side.
Nan Schivone, legal director of Justice in Motion, a network of human rights defenders in Mexico and Central America revealed that they spent 18 months in search of deported parents without due process and their children, and facilitating the connection with lawyers in the US than now They represent them.
"It has taken a great effort to reach this point, but the return of these nine parents is an unprecedented opportunity to reverse one of the most horrible migration policies ever implemented," Schivone said.
Ricardo De Anda, founder and legal director of the firm De Anda, said that his client's nine-year-old son did not see his father for almost two years since the Customs and Border Protection Office removed him at the border.
“This child has suffered immense pain. My client converted to Christianity, and is persecuted in his country because of his faith, ”he explained. He showed that they feel relieved that their client and son were able to meet and begin the healing of the trauma of forced separation, ”said lawyer De Anda.
Linda Dakin-Grimm, a partner at the law firm Milbank, revealed that her client Fernando was cruelly separated from his wife and three daughters at the border two years ago, which exacerbated the anguish and pain in relation to the murder in Guatemala of his son of 17 years old when I was sitting on the porch of Grandma's house.
After the tragedy, the family suffered continuous threats that forced them to seek asylum in the US.
Dakin-Grim said that Fernando cannot express in words how grateful he is to be reunited with his family and be safe and sound in this country.
Michelle Brané, director of the Commission of Refugee Women of the Migrant Rights and Justice (WRC) organization, lamented that since 2017, the Trump administration has put a target on the backs of families seeking security on the border with Mexico. "He has separated families and denied them access to parents who want their children to be safe," he said.
