{"id":663870,"date":"2018-12-29T07:00:55","date_gmt":"2018-12-29T14:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=663870"},"modified":"2018-12-29T15:27:18","modified_gmt":"2018-12-29T22:27:18","slug":"salvadoran-girl-whose-cries-highlighted-cruelty-of-family-separation-policy-embraces-new-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/12\/salvadoran-girl-whose-cries-highlighted-cruelty-of-family-separation-policy-embraces-new-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Salvadoran girl whose cries highlighted cruelty of family separation policy embraces new life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mRtEP-8S3s8\" width=\"771\" height=\"430\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This year, the Trump administration turned the United States immigration system on its head, making a program that was once designed to uphold the principle of family unity into one that tore families apart. Nearly 3,000 children were separated from their families under the administration\u2019s so-called zero-tolerance policy. But all it took was one child to trigger a storm of condemnation that brought the policy down.<\/p>\n<p>Six-year-old Alison Jimena Valencia Madrid, of El Salvador, and her mother, Cindy Madrid, had come across the border in early June. Madrid pleaded for asylum, saying that members of her country\u2019s ruthless street gangs had threatened to kill her and her daughter. Border Patrol agents almost immediately separated the mother and daughter at a Customs and Border Protection holding facility in Texas. There, Jimena\u2019s pleas for help, along with the agonizing cries of numerous other separated children like her, were recorded.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/salvadoran-girl-whose-cries-helped-end-family-separation-policy-embraces-new-life\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ProPublica<\/a>, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom.\u00a0Sign up for their\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.propublica.org\/forms\/newsletter_daily_email\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>That recording was provided to ProPublica, which authenticated and published it. Within hours, it was being played around the world, including at a White House press conference. Two days later, the Trump administration retreated from zero tolerance. Jimena and her mother were soon released from federal custody and reunited shortly afterward.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, mother and daughter have moved out of the spotlight and into a relative\u2019s garage in Houston, while they pursue their asylum claim. This video by ProPublica video journalist Nadia Sussman provides a glimpse of their new lives, and of Jimena\u2019s resilience.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to believe she\u2019s the same deeply distressed girl who was heard on the audio, pleading with authorities to let her make a phone call to her aunt. In this video, she\u2019s all smiles and sassy. She shows off her impressive array of baby dolls \u2014 each one with a name and a life story \u2014 her skills in the kitchen and her ability to recite short poems in English.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Madrid told me that Jimena didn\u2019t like school at first. She complained that the kids weren\u2019t friendly, and that she didn\u2019t like cafeteria food. Madrid believes Jimena didn\u2019t like going to school because she was still suffering from the trauma of their separation. \u201cShe didn\u2019t want to leave my side,\u201d Madrid recalled.<\/p>\n<p>Jimena seems over that now, Madrid said, thanks to the help of a psychologist, who agreed to see Jimena for free, and a gaggle of new friends at school.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Madrid has begun making new friends, too. She\u2019s joined a Christian Salvadoran social club and enrolled in night school to learn English so that she can find a job and keep up with Jimena.<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/pixel.propublica.org\/pixel.js\" async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new video shows how 6-year-old Alison Jimena Valencia Madrid and her mom are coping with their life in Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":594462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,234],"class_list":["post-663870","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\/663870","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=663870"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":663874,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663870\/revisions\/663874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}