{"id":602598,"date":"2018-07-13T17:09:52","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T23:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=602598"},"modified":"2018-07-13T17:09:52","modified_gmt":"2018-07-13T23:09:52","slug":"asylum-seeker-released-after-11-months-in-detention-and-will-soon-see-her-grandson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/07\/asylum-seeker-released-after-11-months-in-detention-and-will-soon-see-her-grandson\/","title":{"rendered":"Asylum-seeker released after 11 months in detention and will soon see her grandson"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_306928\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-306928\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/SantaTeresa-771x498.jpg\" alt=\"Santa Teresa Port of Entry\" width=\"771\" height=\"498\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/SantaTeresa-771x498.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/SantaTeresa-336x217.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/SantaTeresa-768x496.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/SantaTeresa-1170x756.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/SantaTeresa.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Santa Teresa Port of Entry, shown here in 2012, is where Maria Vandelice de Bastos and her 16-year-old grandson crossed into the United States seeking asylum last year.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>EL PASO, Texas \u2014 A Brazilian woman who was detained and separated from her disabled grandson after they sought asylum at a port of entry in New Mexico last year was released from federal custody Thursday, her attorney confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>Maria Vandelice de Bastos and her grandson Matheus da Silva Bastos first sought refuge in August after she said an off-duty police officer threatened her and her grandson when she went to the press to decry the horrible conditions in Matheus\u2019s school,\u00a0according to her asylum claim.<\/p>\n<p>Even though she was found to have a credible fear of returning to her home country, she had been detained in El Paso ever<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>since, while her grandson, who has severe epilepsy and autism, was transferred to a facility in Chicago and later a state-run center in Connecticut because he needs constant care.<\/p>\n<p>Vandelice de Bastos was released after being granted humanitarian parole by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and immediately left El Paso to see her grandson, said her attorney, Eduardo Beckett.<\/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\/13\/brazilian-asylum-seeker-released-after-11-months-detention\/\" 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>\u201cShe said the first thing she\u2019s going to do on Saturday is go see him and she\u2019s very excited about that,\u201d Beckett said.<\/p>\n<p>Despite\u00a0her release, the asylum process for Vandelice de Bastos is far from over.\u00a0El Paso-based immigration judge William Abbott dismissed her asylum claim and Beckett said they must now figure out whether to ask to judge to reconsider the case or ask the Board of Immigration Appeals for a review.<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cNormally we would just [automatically] appeal but in this case, we found more evidence toward the end that wasn\u2019t submitted to the judge,\u201d he said. \u201cBut she will be out on bond the whole time the case is pending.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asylum-seekers must prove they face persecution in their home country due to their \u201crace, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beckett said that because Vandelice de Bastos spoke out against the school and the administration, it could be an act of political expression, and he said the fact that she was threatened by police means they aren\u2019t capable of or willing to protect her.<\/p>\n<p>But the judge ruled<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>that the off-duty officer was acting in a private capacity, not in his official role as a police officer, and dismissed the claim.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s still unclear why Vandelice de Bastos and her grandson were detained and then separated. They\u00a0sought asylum at the port of entry \u2014 which the Trump administration has said is the right way to seek asylum \u2014 rather than crossing\u00a0illegally between the ports, and they were separated months before the start of\u00a0President Trump\u2019s \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy that separated thousands of immigrant\u00a0families.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Vandelice de Bastos did have a prior removal from the country: Beckett said she visited the U.S. frequently under a valid visa for years until Customs and Border Protection officials stopped her at John F. Kennedy International Airport in\u00a0New York in 2007. That\u2019s when Beckett said she admitted working as a babysitter in the underground cash economy, according to her documents in her case file.<\/p>\n<p>She was ultimately denied re-entry and signed a notice that she was prohibited from \u201centering, attempting to enter or being in the United States\u201d for five years.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also unclear whether Vandelice de Bastos will have sole custody of Matheus once they are reunited in Connecticut because he\u2019s currently being cared for by a state agency, Beckett said. She has legal custody of her grandson through a Brazilian court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s going to have to go to court, she\u2019s going to have to present evidence and she\u2019s going to have to convince [the court] that\u2019s the best interest of her grandchild,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>But at least for now, Beckett said, she\u2019s finally able to go see him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s very happy she\u2019s going to be able to do that,\u201d Beckett said.<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\/13\/brazilian-asylum-seeker-released-after-11-months-detention\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maria Vandelice de Bastos, who was detained and separated from her disabled grandson in New Mexico last year, has been released from federal custody. But her ordeal is far from over after an immigration judge dismissed her asylum case. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":306928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,234],"class_list":["post-602598","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\/602598","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=602598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}