{"id":599856,"date":"2018-07-03T12:04:46","date_gmt":"2018-07-03T18:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=599856"},"modified":"2018-07-03T16:31:50","modified_gmt":"2018-07-03T22:31:50","slug":"immigrant-parents-reckon-with-trumps-changing-policies-at-the-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/07\/immigrant-parents-reckon-with-trumps-changing-policies-at-the-border\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigrant parents reckon with Trump&#8217;s changing policies at the border"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_599859\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-599859\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Evelyn-LeadArt-771x517.jpg\" alt=\"Evelyn Teresa Becerra\" width=\"771\" height=\"517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Evelyn-LeadArt-771x517.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Evelyn-LeadArt-336x225.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Evelyn-LeadArt-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Evelyn-LeadArt-1170x784.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Evelyn-LeadArt.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Reynaldo Leal \/ for The Texas Tribune<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Evelyn Teresa Becerra Ramos, 21, holds her 2-year-old daughter, Jennifer, on the bridge between Matamoros, Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas. She left Guatemala to seek asylum in the U.S.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>When news of family separations at the U.S. border reached the city of Malacat\u00e1n in Guatemala, Evelyn Becerra was confronted with a difficult choice: Either leave for the United States and risk losing her 2-year-old daughter, Jennifer, at the border, or stay in her home country, where,\u00a0she says, her husband had threatened to kill her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy biggest fear is that they&#8217;ll separate me from my daughter,&#8221; said Becerra, 21.\u00a0&#8220;She&#8217;s all that I have.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In the end, President Donald Trump made the decision for her when he issued an executive order two weeks ago\u00a0ending the separations, which have generated widespread outrage. Becerra heard the news and decided to leave Guatemala.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/07\/03\/video-immigrant-parents-reckon-trumps-changing-policies-border\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Texas Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Last month, Becerra and Jennifer traveled\u00a0by<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>bus from Guatemala to Mexico, planning to seek asylum at the border.<\/p>\n<p>Their chances, however, look slim: In June, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed an immigration appeals court ruling that had granted asylum to victims of domestic violence, a decision that will make it nearly impossible for immigrants to gain entry to the country by citing fears of spousal abuse.<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Still, on Thursday, Becerra and her daughter sat together underneath a black and white umbrella on the bridge between Brownsville and Matamoros as they waited for immigration officials to let them into the U.S to make their asylum request. Two days later, after crossing the border, they were on their way to Birmingham, Alabama, where Becerra planned\u00a0to stay while the government processes her case, according to her brother, Edilberto Becerra, who lives in the city.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a dangerous time, and sad \u2014\u00a0not to know how she is, if she\u2019s eating or if something bad\u2019s happening to her,\u201d Becerra&#8217;s brother said in a phone interview last week. \u201cI\u2019m happy that she\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5V4D0OqNslY\" width=\"771\" height=\"430\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Not every parent seeking asylum this month chose to postpone traveling to the border as stories about family separations filtered to Central America.<\/p>\n<p>Jose Santos Garcia, 27, a logger and carpenter from El Salvador, left for the U.S. with his 8-year-old daughter, Brenda, at a time when the American government was still separating immigrant children from their parents. Garcia left behind his other four children, who he said were too young to make the grueling trip. Despite the risks, he was convinced that he and his oldest child had no choice but to flee the gang violence and economic stagnation in their home country.<\/p>\n<p>And in any case, Garcia said, he didn\u2019t think he could trust everything he saw on the news about the United States\u2019 rapidly changing immigration policies.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe see the Salvadoran news, we see the Mexican news. These are not truth,\u201d he said at a bus station in McAllen. \u201cThis is our only option and our last option.\u201d\u00a0<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Garcia said he and his daughter traveled\u00a0to the U.S. border in a van with dozens of other migrants from El Salvador before requesting asylum at an official port of entry. On Saturday, father and daughter sat together at the bus station, bound for California, where Garcia\u2019s mother lives. As he described his struggle to find work in his home country, Garcia bent down to roll his pants leg over the ankle bracelet he is required to wear until his next court date later this month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would stay in my country if I could, but I want my children to have a better future,\u201d he said. \u201cI came here for them.\u201d<script async src=\"https:\/\/cdn.texastribune.org\/pixel\/dot.min.29c708b3d0da5d17a725.js\" integrity=\"sha384-8Xwf\/TlQnmHiajg1t3dn8w4qlF1rmV33o5NAQVXYu0T2q3rHV5579zrSmRjh+XnM\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\" data-tt-canonical=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/07\/03\/video-immigrant-parents-reckon-trumps-changing-policies-border\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order two weeks ago ending family separations, Evelyn Becerra heard the news and decided to leave Guatemala with her 2-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":599859,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,234,3307],"class_list":["post-599856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-children","tag-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}