{"id":602428,"date":"2018-07-12T11:13:53","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T17:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=602428"},"modified":"2018-07-12T11:29:39","modified_gmt":"2018-07-12T17:29:39","slug":"the-path-to-reunification-isnt-easy-for-immigrant-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/07\/the-path-to-reunification-isnt-easy-for-immigrant-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"The path to reunification isn&#8217;t easy for immigrant parents"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_602432\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-602432\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Mario_Annuniation_House_IPA_TT-771x517.jpg\" alt=\"Mario\" width=\"771\" height=\"517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Mario_Annuniation_House_IPA_TT-771x517.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Mario_Annuniation_House_IPA_TT-336x225.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Mario_Annuniation_House_IPA_TT-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Mario_Annuniation_House_IPA_TT-1170x784.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Mario_Annuniation_House_IPA_TT.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Ivan Pierre Aguirre \/ for The Texas Tribune<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mario, who did not want to release his last name, outside the Casa Vides Annunciation House immigrant shelter in El Paso on Monday.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>EL PASO, Texas \u2014 More than a month after he was separated from his 10-year-old child, an undocumented Honduran who is seeking asylum in the United States was finally able to see his daughter Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>But an hour later, Mario said, they were separated again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thank God for the hour, though,\u201d he said Wednesday. \u201cI was able to tell her I loved her, that I missed her and that everything was going to be alright because we have faith in God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mario was one of thousands of parents separated from their children under President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy on immigration. And though he knows where his daughter is and has been released from federal custody, Mario said there are still several hurdles he must clear before the two are together for more than 60 minutes.\u00a0(Mario&#8217;s legal representatives asked that he be identified by first name only.)<\/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\/11\/path-reunification-isnt-easy-immigrant-parents\/\" 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>Late last month, he told The Texas Tribune he was waiting to receive a copy of his birth certificate after federal agents kept it following his release from custody. On Wednesday, he said he was waiting to be fingerprinted in order to submit more proof that he is his daughter\u2019s father.<\/p>\n<p>Mario was one of 32 immigrant parents transferred to downtown El Paso\u2019s Annunciation House, a shelter that\u2019s housed migrants for decades. He\u2019s one of only two from that group who is still in El Paso because that is where their kids are, said Taylor Levy, the center\u2019s legal coordinator.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the proximity, they haven\u2019t been able to clear all the hurdles the government has imposed, Levy said.\u00a0It&#8217;s part of the federal government&#8217;s scramble to reunite families after a federal judge&#8217;s ruling last month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re doing everything that the [Office of Refugee Resettlement] asked us. He\u2019s doing everything that ORR asked,\u201d Levy said.<\/p>\n<p>Levy said she doesn\u2019t blame the social workers who work tirelessly to ensure family members claiming guardianship aren\u2019t lying. But she does blame the system the government has in place<strong> \u2014<\/strong> one that includes using different contractors to perform the same duties. In Mario\u2019s case, it\u2019s the fingerprinting process that\u2019s holding things up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor whatever reason, his daughter is in a shelter that\u2019s run by one contractor, and the other family we are working is in a shelter run by another contractor,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd they got the appointment on the 4th\u00a0of July.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In a statement issued June 5, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it was working overtime to reunite the thousands of children who had been separated, including conducting DNA tests to verify parental relationship. The statement said the requirements are necessary to ensure the children\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n<p>What made Wednesday even more bittersweet for Mario is that he spoke to reporters just minutes after two fathers, one from Guatemala and one from Honduras, spoke at a news conference about being reunited with their young sons the day before. The two were part of a group of parents whose young children were ordered by a federal court to be reunited with their parents by Tuesday. While they addressed the media, their young sons played with toy guitars and microphones and tussled over who got to use a marker on the coloring books they had in front of them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m happy for them because I know they were suffering also,\u201d Mario said. \u201cAnd it gives me hope that I\u2019m going to be with my daughter soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The same situation is playing out in the Rio Grande Valley, according to Grassroots Leadership, an Austin-based immigrant rights center that opposes for-profit detention centers.<\/p>\n<p>Claudia Mu\u00f1oz, Grassroots Leadership\u2019s immigration programs director, said she\u2019s accompanied three Central American mothers to the region where they\u2019ve been told their children are being held. But each one has had to deal with different challenges in order to be reunited with their children for longer than the daily hour-long visits they are allowed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey had asked [one] mother for a proof of address for the past 30 days, like a utility bill or something, but she was just released from detention, so she didn\u2019t have that,\u201d Mu\u00f1oz said.<\/p>\n<p>Another mother was told she had to start the complete sponsorship process that guardians of unaccompanied minors go through to be reunited with her child\u00a0\u2014 a process Mu\u00f1oz said could take up to six weeks. A sponsorship packet Mu\u00f1oz provided to the Tribune requests\u00a0everything from a sponsor\u2019s naturalization information to their child&#8217;s immunization records.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Rep. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/filemon-vela\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Filemon Vela<\/a>, D-Brownsville,\u00a0who has been working with Grassroots Leadership,\u00a0said in an email that the haphazard reunification system is a government-created disaster that could have long-lasting effects on the children.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor HHS to question the parentage of those who provide birth certificates and correct documentation for their children is a slap in the face,&#8221; the email read.\u00a0&#8220;Psychologists and pediatricians all over the country agree that extended separation is irreparably traumatic. The suffering that these children are needlessly experiencing will haunt them for years to come, and they have the President to thank for that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Back in El Paso, Levy said the best-case scenario is for the government to dismantle the legal obstacle course before the next court-ordered deadline. After Tuesday\u2019s deadline to reunite all separated children 5 years old or younger \u2014 which the Trump administration missed \u2014 it has until July 26 to reunite all the remaining separated families.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know where the [children] are; bring them back,\u201d she said. \u201cDon\u2019t try to do everything on the very last day.\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\/11\/path-reunification-isnt-easy-immigrant-parents\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After he was separated from his 10-year-old daughter, Mario, an undocumented Honduran, was finally able to see her Tuesday. The reunion lasted for about an hour before the two were separated again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":602432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,234],"class_list":["post-602428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-children"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602428","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=602428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}