{"id":602616,"date":"2018-07-15T07:00:35","date_gmt":"2018-07-15T13:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=602616"},"modified":"2018-07-13T17:40:54","modified_gmt":"2018-07-13T23:40:54","slug":"salvadoran-mom-gets-her-daughter-back-after-almost-two-months-apart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/07\/salvadoran-mom-gets-her-daughter-back-after-almost-two-months-apart\/","title":{"rendered":"Salvadoran mom gets her daughter back after almost two months apart"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_602619\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-602619\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Corpus_reunion_3_ES_TT-771x517.jpg\" alt=\"Mercedes and Maria\" width=\"771\" height=\"517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Corpus_reunion_3_ES_TT-771x517.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Corpus_reunion_3_ES_TT-336x225.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Corpus_reunion_3_ES_TT-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Corpus_reunion_3_ES_TT-1170x784.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Corpus_reunion_3_ES_TT.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Eddie Seal \/ for The Texas Tribune<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mercedes (right), a Salvadoran asylum seeker, is reunited with her daughter, Maria, in Corpus Christi on Friday.<\/p><\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">After fleeing El Salvador to protect her daughter \u2014 only to get separated from her for almost two months under the Trump administration\u2019s &#8220;zero tolerance&#8221; policy \u2014 Mercedes was finally reunited with 16-year-old Maria at Bokenkamp Children\u2019s Shelter in Corpus Christi Friday.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Tears dissolved into smiles when the two walked out of the shelter together \u2014 56 days after U.S. authorities separated them in South Texas.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Mercedes, 38, had been released from an Austin-area detention center for women on June 20 after convincing the U.S. government she had \u201ccredible fear\u201d of torture and persecution back home and then posting a $1,500 bond, said her Austin-based lawyer, Lindsay Gray.<\/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\/salvadoran-mom-gets-her-daughter-back-after-almost-two-months-apart\/\" 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 dir=\"ltr\">Mercedes spoke with The Texas Tribune on her way to pick up her daughter in Corpus Christi. The Tribune is using their first names only at Gray\u2019s request.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Mercedes said she and Maria were separated a day after crossing the Texas-Mexico border. When she asked the U.S. agents why other mothers were able to stay with their children longer, she said they told her, \u201cbecause they are smaller.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;I said, &#8216;I want my daughter,&#8217; and they said she is very close,&#8221; she said. Ultimately, though, they rode out their separation hundreds of miles apart.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Mercedes said she and her husband decided to flee El Salvador on April 25 after they were targeted by criminals in Atiquizaya, located in a rural area near Guatemala. She said her daughter had been sexually assaulted in 2016, and since then they had faced extortion and threats.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Mercedes said the MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs are fighting for territory in her neighborhoods, but she was unable to say if the calls she received came from one or both of the gangs.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThey told me that they wanted money and that otherwise they were going to start hitting me where it hurt the most,\u201d Mercedes said. \u201c[They said] that I was going to find my daughter in a body bag.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">That\u2019s when they decided to get out.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Her husband said, &#8220;We are going to have to leave. The girl\u2019s life is in danger,&#8221; Mercedes told the Tribune.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;We took a bus and went toward the border [with Guatemala],\u201d she said. Her husband, who also crossed the border, has since been deported. Mercedes pleaded guilty to illegal entry in federal court on May 21.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Before seeking asylum in the United States, Mercedes said they sought help from Guatemalan authorities \u2014 to no avail.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Gray said their complaint to the police could help the family win an asylum case at a time when U.S. authorities are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/07\/12\/migrants-asylum-tougher-guidelines\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">narrowing the circumstances<\/a> under which migrants qualify for asylum. Under new guidelines issued this week, asylum seekers claiming they are fleeing domestic or gang violence generally would be ineligible, for example.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIn so many cases, the individuals being persecuted are afraid to contact the police, and they just don\u2019t because they know they\u2019re not going to get any help, and in this case they were so desperate that they did contact the police and the police affirmatively didn\u2019t do anything,\u201d Gray said.<\/p>\n<p><em>Reporter Jay Root contributed to this story.<\/em><script 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\/salvadoran-mom-gets-her-daughter-back-after-almost-two-months-apart\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tears dissolved into smiles as the two walked out of the Bokenkamp Children&#8217;s Shelter in Corpus Christi on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":602619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,234],"class_list":["post-602616","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\/602616","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=602616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}