{"id":599806,"date":"2018-07-03T08:32:14","date_gmt":"2018-07-03T14:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=599806"},"modified":"2018-07-03T12:04:42","modified_gmt":"2018-07-03T18:04:42","slug":"i-just-want-to-tell-my-son-i-love-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/07\/i-just-want-to-tell-my-son-i-love-him\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I just want to tell my son I love him’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Casa

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services<\/p>

Immigrant children inside a Texas facility on June 14.<\/p><\/div>\n

LOS FRESNOS, Texas \u2014 Calling from an unreliable phone at the Port Isabel Detention Center, her voice sounds muffled, and far away. To be understood, she needs to keep repeating herself. For her to hear the person calling, they need to yell.<\/p>\n

Blanca wishes more than anything else that it was her two daughters, ages 6 and 14, on the other end of the line. But she hasn\u2019t spoken to them since they were separated at the border, after a long journey from Honduras. It\u2019s been almost three weeks.<\/p>\n

To arrange calls at the facility run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, parents need to fill out a request form. Blanca says she has submitted five.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is maddening,\u201d she said. \u201cThe officials, they don\u2019t say anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

As President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy, which separated more than 2,500 children from their parents at the border in May and June, stretches into its third month, the administration has to contend with some impending deadlines, set by a judge last week<\/a> after the American Civil Liberties Union sued. By July 10, children under 5 must be reunited with their parents. By July 26, all families must be together. By Friday, officials must arrange phone calls between all parents and children.<\/p>\n