{"id":606146,"date":"2018-07-23T12:12:48","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T18:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=606146"},"modified":"2018-07-23T12:59:10","modified_gmt":"2018-07-23T18:59:10","slug":"incommunicado-in-south-texas-migrant-parents-await-reunification-in-seclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/07\/incommunicado-in-south-texas-migrant-parents-await-reunification-in-seclusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Incommunicado in South Texas: Migrant parents await reunification in seclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_596944\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-596944\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Port_Isabel_exterior_RL_TT-771x517.jpg\" alt=\"Port Isabel Detention Center\" width=\"771\" height=\"517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Port_Isabel_exterior_RL_TT-771x517.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Port_Isabel_exterior_RL_TT-336x225.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Port_Isabel_exterior_RL_TT-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Port_Isabel_exterior_RL_TT-1170x784.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Port_Isabel_exterior_RL_TT.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\">The main entrance to the Port Isabel Detention Center.<\/p><\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">They were awakened in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Get your things, they were told. You&#8217;re being moved. Where? They didn\u2019t know. Maybe, if the whispers were right, they were going to another U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in San Antonio.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Half an hour later, at about 4 a.m. Tuesday, a Honduran man The Texas Tribune is identifying as \u201cCarlos\u201d was loaded onto a bus with about two-dozen other migrants, he said. Like him, they all had been separated from their children at the southern border under the Trump administration&#8217;s now-paused &#8220;zero-tolerance&#8221; policy. Like him, they figured the sudden relocation meant they were on their way to be reunited.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But after an hour driving in pitch darkness, Carlos said the bus returned to the Joe Corley Detention Facility outside Houston without explanation.<\/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\/22\/migrant-parents-separated-children-south-texas\/\" 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>\u201cWe asked them what happened and they simply told us that they had canceled the trip,\u201d Carlos told the Tribune in a phone call from the GEO Group-operated facility on Tuesday. &#8220;What everybody was hoping was they supposedly were taking us to see our kids, that they were going to reunite us with our kids. That&#8217;s what we all imagined. We were all happy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The surprise trip to nowhere was the newest unexplained bump on the road to reunification with Carlos&#8217; 6-year-old daughter, Heyli, who is being held at a Southwest Key shelter in Arizona. Another one came this weekend, when Carlos was spotted by a volunteer lawyer wearing civilian clothes inside the secretive Port Isabel Service Processing Center in deep South Texas \u2014 some 400 miles south of the Joe Corley detention center.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Since Wednesday, Carlos has been held virtually incommunicado at the Port Isabel facility, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/about\/news\/2018\/06\/23\/zero-tolerance-prosecution-and-family-reunification.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">designated<\/a> by the government as the primary removal and reunification center for separated migrant families.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It\u2019s a situation that\u2019s befallen dozens of migrants bused to Port Isabel in recent days, as Thursday\u2019s court-imposed reunification deadline draws near, say advocates who visited the facility as recently as Saturday.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">On the brink of being released from detention and reunited with children separated from them sometimes months ago, migrant parents are being held at the South Texas facility in a sort of limbo \u2014 not free to leave, but with limited or no access to phones or commissary accounts that regular detainees get, those advocates say.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Bethany Carson, an immigration researcher and organizer with Grassroots Leadership, an advocacy organization critical of &#8220;mass incarceration&#8221; and deportation, spoke to two migrants at Port Isabel Saturday. She said they\u2019re being told they\u2019re in a transitory state \u2014 \u201cnot detained in that place anymore,\u201d but not yet moved to a church or family detention center with their children.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThey&#8217;re treating them like they&#8217;re processed out of the facility already but they&#8217;re still there,\u201d Carson said. \u201cThey&#8217;re still locked up. They&#8217;re still detained. They can&#8217;t leave. So all they&#8217;ve done is take away their communication and all of the other things that, according to detention standards, they have rights to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a statement Monday, ICE spokesperson Carl Rusnok said federal agencies are &#8220;working tirelessly to reunite parents and children within the court ordered timeline.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In order to facilitate more efficient reunification of family units going forward, ICE has leveraged additional resources to enhance processing capacity for adults\/parents held&#8221; at Port Isabel, Rusnok said. Most children brought to the facility are &#8220;reunified with their parents within a few hours of their arrival.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">&#8216;Putting the cart before the horse&#8217;<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Authorities are putting women in one area and men in another, and the clothes on their backs hint at their fate, according to lawyers and advocates who have visited: Those who are destined for release to a nearby Catholic shelter don plain clothes \u2014 often what they were wearing when they crossed the border \u2014 typically topped by a white shirt issued to them in detention.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Those without a white shirt may not be so lucky. According to Jodi Goodwin, a local immigration attorney, that means the migrant may make one more stop at a family detention center before they\u2019re deported from the country. (According to government lawyers, some 863 migrant parents separated from their kids are marked for deportation, but a judge has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/07\/16\/separated-families-deported-immediately-reunificaiton\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">temporarily barred<\/a> authorities from immediately removing reunited families from the country.)<!--more--><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The government is under a court order to reunite most separated migrant families by July 26, a deadline that looms over the political and legal morass that\u2019s ensued since the federal \u201czero-tolerance\u201d policy was announced in April. More than 450 of the roughly 2,500 children separated from their families under that policy have been returned to parents or guardians, and different branches of the federal bureaucracy are scrambling to reunite the remaining families in time.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Chaotic and haphazard, it\u2019s an endeavor that involves coordination between multiple agencies, including ICE and the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which oversees separated children housed in contracted shelters across the country.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of putting the cart before the horse, because they need the kid here before they can release the parents to reunify them,\u201d Goodwin said. \u201cBut ICE \u2014 I&#8217;m going to give them some credit here \u2014 they&#8217;re busting their butt, and they&#8217;ve gotten the paperwork done quicker than ORR has been able to get the kids down here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The migrant parents in limbo at Port Isabel are given a three-letter designation, used internally by some officers, that highlights the uncertainty of their plight: ATW, according to Goodwin, or all the way out.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Except they\u2019re not.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt says [ATW] on their system when I go to visit them, but they&#8217;re physically still there,\u201d Goodwin said of her clients at Port Isabel. \u201cI\u2019ve gone twice to see them and the officers tell me, \u2018Nope, you can\u2019t seem them, not here \u2026 Can\u2019t find them in the system\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">&#8216;I never imagined this&#8217;<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">For the family members and lawyers of those detained at Port Isabel, being cut off from communication just as they were expecting a joyous reunion with their children has prompted fear and panic.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/07\/11\/migrant-mom-moves-farther-son-better-chance-asylum\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Salvadoran woman named Claudia<\/a>, separated from her son Kevin since May 23, was abruptly moved to South Texas from the T. Don Hutto Residential Center near Austin on July 9. She had been calling her lawyer twice daily and remained in regular contact with her sister in Virginia. Then, as with Carlos, the regular communication ceased on Wednesday. When her sister called the facility, she says a guard told her Claudia was no longer there.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_606153\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-606153\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Claudia_y_Kevin_2-336x597.jpg\" alt=\"Kevin and Claudia\" width=\"336\" height=\"597\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Claudia_y_Kevin_2-336x597.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Claudia_y_Kevin_2.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Seven-year-old Kevin and his mother, Claudia, are fleeing violence and persecution in their native El Salvador.<\/p><\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI just became really concerned that she had been moved somewhere and that they weren&#8217;t updating the online locator and there&#8217;s something really fishy and troublesome about that,\u201d said her lawyer, Jennifer Walker Gates. \u201cIf she hasn&#8217;t in fact been moved and she&#8217;s allowed to call but she hasn&#8217;t been calling, I just think she&#8217;s becoming really despondent. That&#8217;s my fear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">However, a volunteer attorney saw Claudia at Port Isabel Saturday and said she had on a white shirt.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Carlos, the Honduran man, had been trying in vain to call his family members in Central America since June, when he told the Tribune he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/06\/24\/kids-exchange-deportation-migrants-claim-they-were-promised-they-could\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">agreed to be deported<\/a> out of desperation to see his daughter again. (His lawyer has been fighting to keep him in the country.)<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The sudden cutoff in communication at Port Isabel came just as Carlos managed to speak to his wife and parents in Honduras for the first time since May 25, when he turned himself into the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the border illegally with his daughter Heyli.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Through an elaborate system of coordinated times and speaker phones \u2014 Carlos&#8217; wife, who is also named Claudia, would call one Tribune reporter while Carlos called another \u2014 they&#8217;d been able to hear each others&#8217; voices for the first time in weeks.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;I was talking to [Heyli],\u201d Claudia told Carlos on a Tuesday phone call.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>Carlos: &#8220;What did she tell you?&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>Claudia: \u201cShe\u2019s happy because I told her that they had moved you from the jail and she told me that her caseworker assured her that they were going to be reunited\u2026 Don\u2019t worry about [Heyli]. I calm her down. She cries, but I cheer her up. I tell her not to worry.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The telephone line abruptly cut off with an automated sign-off in Spanish \u2014 \u201cThank you for using GTL [Global Tel Link]&#8221; \u2014 but Carlos managed to call back, and his wife passed the phone to his mother.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>Mother: \u201cHello son.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>Carlos: \u201cHow are you?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>Mother: \u201cWe are fine, my son. Don&#8217;t worry about that, we are fine. Always thinking about you, but here we are passing the time.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>Carlos: \u201cYes, mama, don\u2019t worry about that because soon this torture is going to be over.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>Mother: \u201cOh, my son, I hope that you get out soon.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It was the first and so far the only time mother and son have been able to speak since Carlos entered ICE custody.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">As parents like Carlos shuffle through various detention centers, their children have been stuck in the same shelters for weeks, waiting for the government to figure out how to reunite them. Though Claudia told her husband that Heyli was optimistic about a reunion on Tuesday, the little girl was sobbing uncontrollably \u2014 rubbing her eyes and rocking back and forth \u2014 in a video call with her mother on Friday.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_606154\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-606154\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Heyli_crying_EMBED-771x342.jpg\" alt=\"Heyli\" width=\"771\" height=\"342\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Heyli_crying_EMBED-771x342.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Heyli_crying_EMBED-336x149.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Heyli_crying_EMBED-768x341.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Heyli_crying_EMBED-1170x519.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Heyli_crying_EMBED.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Six-year-old Heyli in a video call with her mother, Claudia, on July 20.<\/p><\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI never imagined this,\u201d Heyli says through tears.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI know, love,\u201d Claudia says. \u201cBut, look, you have little time left there. Don\u2019t cry, love. You\u2019ll be coming back soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But where the reunion will happen \u2014 and whether it will be followed by a flight back to Carlos and Heyli&#8217;s rural Honduran hometown \u2014 remains unknown. A volunteer attorney who saw Carlos Saturday said he was wearing a blue button-up shirt and shoes that looked very worn.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">He wasn&#8217;t wearing a white shirt, the attorney said.<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\/22\/migrant-parents-separated-children-south-texas\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the brink of being released and reunited with children, migrant parents are held at a South Texas facility in a sort of limbo \u2014 not free to leave, but without access to phones or commissary accounts that regular detainees get.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":596944,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,234],"class_list":["post-606146","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\/606146","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=606146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}