{"id":603355,"date":"2018-07-16T15:59:56","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T21:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=603355"},"modified":"2018-07-16T16:05:51","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T22:05:51","slug":"i-felt-like-i-was-dying-detained-immigrant-fathers-describe-family-separation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/07\/i-felt-like-i-was-dying-detained-immigrant-fathers-describe-family-separation\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I felt like I was dying:’ Detained immigrant fathers describe family separation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Drawing\"

Provided by New Mexico Immigrant Law Center<\/p>

A drawing by a father, extracted from the letters.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

“They told me they were going to handcuff me, and I begged them not to do it in front of my daughter. I said goodbye to my daughter and I told another young girl, a little older, who also had been separated to take care of my daughter. They took me and I saw the tears of my daughter. It has been 40 days since I heard anything about her.”
\n<\/i>–\u00a0Macedonio, from Guatemala, July 10, 2018<\/em><\/h4>\n
\n

In letters scrawled by hand, five immigrant fathers detained in New Mexico describe being separated from their children at the border and the uncertainty of when — or whether — they will be reunited.<\/p>\n

The men describe their anguish at being taken from their children and not knowing their children\u2019s whereabouts for weeks or months. \u201cI felt like I was dying,\u201d wrote one father, who did not give his name or country of origin.<\/p>\n

The Legislature’s Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee heard their stories at a hearing July 16 on privately run immigrant prisons in the state.<\/p>\n

About 70 fathers who were separated from their children are currently being held at Cibola County Correctional Center, according to Allegra Love, director of the Santa Fe Dreamers Project, a legal advocacy organization.<\/p>\n