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Under the cover of coronavirus, Trump officials have brought back family separation in new forms: https://lat.ms/2M5ObGW @latimes 1/
Meet Jose - a street preacher in El Salvador who fled death threats from MS-13. He's now in Maryland stringing together gardening jobs after the restaurants closed, not letting his four kids touch him when he gets home, for fear of the virus. https://lat.ms/2M5ObGW @latimes 2/
Meet his wife - also dedicated to their evangelical church, where she met Jose, after her 1st husband was killed by the gang in 2006. She's stuck in a makeshift refugee camp in Matamoros, Mexico, one of the world's most dangerous cities, rationing soap. https://bit.ly/3eq65At 3/
Meet their children — ages 10, 14, and 16, who just joined their father, Jose, after winning release from a government shelter where they had been held for more than two months. Now, the government is fighting to take them from Jose and deport them to El Salvador — to no one. 4/
In 9 months, the 2 oldest girls & their little brother have gone from hiding in El Salvador to a tent on the Rio Grande to a government shelter & now to a suburban DC home with a green lawn. “There’s still this sadness in them,” Jose said but "It’s like they can breathe again” 5/
Two years ago, Trump's WH revealed 'family separation'-its most infamous immigration policy. ICE recently reiterated: “Consistent with President Trump’s June 20, 2018, executive order, it is the policy of the administration to maintain family unity.” 6/
Gov attorneys proposed to Jose's 3 kids: If they agreed to “their expeditious and immediate repatriation to El Salvador” & withdrew their suits, & if their mother presented at the border, ICE would deport them together, “ensuring that Plaintiffs remain in the care of a parent” 7/
The gov lawyers warned in a footnote:“To be removed with her children, Plaintiffs’ mother would have to immediately elect an expeditious reunification and joint repatriation with her children" & "choose to forego further action" or they could send the kids to El Salvador alone 8/
Citing coronavirus to seal the border to an unprecedented extent, the admin is engaged in a pressure campaign against immigrant parents to get them to give up either their kids or their legal claims. Scores are being targeted, per court docs, 20+ officials, lawyers & migrants 9/
Many of the kids 1st claimed asylum with parents at border but were put into "Remain in Mexico" (Listen @ThisAmerLife https://bit.ly/3ehakOK 10/ ) Advocates argue US law says unaccompanied migrant minors are entitled to hearings, gov says they already had them under MPP. 10/
Their fates may hinge on Jose’s family’s case, a test of Trump’s latest policies to bar migrant families. With similar cases across the country, but theirs furthest along in the courts, “this is either going to make it or break it for people" said Claudia Cubas @CAIRCoalition 11/
At a hearing in early May in Jose’s family’s case, a federal district judge questioned the constitutionality of the gov taking the kids-“You’re taking a 9-year-old child, removing that child from the parent and sending that child to a place in which the child has no guardian" 12/
After, ICE agreed to hold off on deporting the kids until a decision by the immigration appeals court. Jose may be able to win his separate asylum case, delayed by coronavirus, & add his family. Meanwhile, the kids still face deportation orders. 13/
In Matamoros, their mom said she'll never allow her children to return to El Salvador. “My wish is to be with my children there in America one day. But if it is my turn to return, I have already lived my life. They are just beginning to live.” https://lat.ms/2Xt2SJm @latimes END
NOTE: Jose fam in limbo but permitted to be in US. They presented to officials & claimed asylum/fear of return to El Salvador. US law grants migrants right to seek asylum however they enter. As fmr Trump official John Kelly says: Don't like the law? Change it. But that's the law
