Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 18
Like Tree23Likes

Thread: Caravan: Parents seeking asylum in U.S. fear forcible separation from children

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    PARADISE (San Diego)
    Posts
    99,040

    Caravan: Parents seeking asylum in U.S. fear forcible separation from children

    Migrant caravan: Parents seeking asylum in U.S. fear forcible separation from children





    Tijuana, Mexico — Kenia Elizabeth Avila Garcia sat in a restaurant stairwell looking dejected while the youngest of her three children bounced a rubber ball on the steps.

    She had just met with an American lawyer providing pro bono legal consultations in a room upstairs to the migrants from Central America who traveled in a caravan through Mexico to the U.S. border.


    The lawyer had just given her a sobering warning.

    By applying for asylum, there is a chance U.S. immigration authorities could separate her from her children, the lawyer told Avila Garcia.

    "I didn't come all this way to be separated from my children," the 35-year-old mother from Honduras said as the late afternoon sunlight shining through a window accentuated the deep lines on her travel-weary face.


    RELATED: Central American migrants in caravan on a collision course with Trump


    The warnings are based on mounting evidence that U.S. immigration authorities under President Donald Trump's administration have been separating Central American parents from their children, possibly as punishment or a deterrent.


    Children have been separated from parents after the families arrived at the U.S. border seeking refuge and taken into custody.


    Arizona Republic Reporter Daniel Gonzalez talks about the caravan reaching the border. Nick Oza, The Republic | azcentral.com

    'More harsh than it's ever been'

    "We are providing a warning because, unfortunately, it's by choice of the officers and the U.S. customs and immigration authorities to separate families," said James Davis, an immigration attorney from the Immigration Legal Services of Chula Vista who joined other lawyers from the United States to provide legal consultations to the migrants in Tijuana.

    "There have been situations where they will mis-track the kids and then have to try and find them because they've been separated from their parents," Davis said, adding that the family separations appear intentional.

    "The environment is clearly more harsh than it's ever been."


    As a precaution, American lawyers have been providing migrant parents legal documents that verify the children they are traveling with belong to them and requesting that they not be separated during the asylum process, Davis said.

    RELATED: Central Americans in migrant caravan must decide whether to enter U.S.


    More than 700 migrant children have been taken from adults
    claiming to be their parents since October, according to the New York Times. The newspaper reviewed data prepared by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, which takes custody of children who have been removed from migrant parents.

    More than 100 of the children taken from parents were under the age of 4, the Timesreported.

    Central American migrant children wait near The El Chaparral port of entry border crossing on April 28, 2018. (Photo: Nick Oza/The Republic)


    DHS: Separations not for deterrence

    DHS officials could not be independently reached for comment Saturday.

    But in a statement provided to the Times, a DHS official said children are occasionally separated from an adult they are traveling with in some instances, such as when when parental relationships cannot be confirmed.


    DHS does not separate children from parents for deterrence purposes, the statement said.

    Critics aren't buying it.

    There has been a "huge spike" in the number of migrant children separated from parents as the result of efforts by the Trump administration to deter migrant families from Central America, said Jennifer Podkul, director of policy at Kids In Need of Defense, a group that provides legal representation to unaccompanied migrant children.


    She noted two cases involving mothers separated from a 7-year old and a 12-year-old who were deported while their children were still in the custody of U.S. immigration authorities.


    Podkul said the Trump administration's decision to aggressively prosecute migrant parents is exacerbating family separations.


    "Under this administration, what we've seen happening is a sort of punishment, as a way of trying to deter families from trying to come here," she said. "And also they've devoted so many more resources to criminal prosecutions (of migrants and) that has also caused a huge spike in the separations."


    Central American migrants gathered inside and outside a church in Puebla, Mexico on April 7, 2018, for a caravan hoped to travel to the U.S. border drawing the ire of President Trump. Nick Oza/azcentral.com

    'I can't go back to Honduras'

    Avila Garcia said she fled Honduras with her three children after receiving death threats from gangs after she filed a police complaint against her abusive husband.

    She is among the approximately 300 migrants from Central America who arrived this week in Tijuana in a caravan, the majority of them women and children from Honduras.


    She planned to present herself on Sunday to U.S. border officers at the San Ysidro port of entry and apply for asylum. She said she has a brother who lives in Miami who is married to a U.S. citizen.


    She said she was worried about the possibility that she could be separated from for her three children, 4-year-old Jeremy, 9-year-old Oscar Steven and 10-year-old Jose y Manuel.


    Returning to Honduras, she said, was not an option because of the gangs that threatened her.


    "I can't go back to Honduras," she said. "They said they want to kill me. I am sure they will kill me."


    Domestic abuse and gang violence are rampant among the multiple factors forcing families to flee Honduras, said Suyapa Portillo, an assistant professor at Pitzer College, in Claremont, California,
    Portillo is currently living in San Pedro Sula on the northern coast of Honduras, conducting research on the conditions in Honduras that are driving migrants and families to flee.

    She was robbed in 2013, while visiting Roatan, an island popular with tourists.


    While walking toward the beach with a friend, two young men jumped out from a woodsy area.


    "One had a machete," Portillo recalled. "The other had a gun."


    The men stole money and a camera, she said.

    Portillo said victims of street crime, gang violence and domestic abuse in Honduras are afraid to call the police because they don't trust them.


    FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedIn
    Migrant caravan in Mexico
    Fullscreen


    Lisandro Guerrero and his wife, Maria Sosa, came to protest outside Mexican senators office in Mexico City on April 10, 2018. Nick Oza/The Republic
    Fullscreen



    Violence, political turmoil worsening

    She said drug-cartel violence has also worsened in Honduras, as U.S. efforts to stop drug trafficking through the Caribbean have pushed routes through Honduras and Central America. Free-trade agreements with the U.S. also have exacerbated divisions between the rich and the poor, forcing working-class people to seek better economic opportunities elsewhere, Portillo said.

    The country is also grappling with major political turmoil in the wake of the November presidential election, which many Hondurans believe the incumbent, Juan Orlando Hernandez, won by fraud.


    After Orlando Hernandez was declared the winner, the Trump administration expressed support for his administration in battling corruption, while allowing the Honduran government to receive millions of dollars in U.S. aid., according to Newsweek.


    At least 23 people were killed during protests against the re-election of Orlando Hernandez, among them 22 civilians and one police officer, according to a report by the United Nations Human Rights Office of the Higher Commissioner.


    "Based on its monitoring, OHCHR considered that at least 16 of the victims were shot to death by the security forces, including two women, and two children," the report said.


    In addition, at least 60 people were injured, half of them by gunshots, the report said.


    There were mass arrests during the protests, with at least 1,351 people detained by security forces, the report said.


    Portillo said she has interviewed family members of political prisoners who haven't been seen since they were arrested in December. She said family members told her police were filming protesters and "then they would go hunt them down at night."


    The political turmoil is now a main factor in pushing people to flee Honduras, including many who joined the caravan and now planning to ask for asylum in the U.S., she said.


    "A lot of the migrants in that caravan are leaving because they've become disillusioned," she said.

    "People are leaving because they are now being hunted down by police. They don't just have to contend with narco-traffickers and gang members, now they have to contend with police investigations because they went to peaceful protests."

    https://www.azcentral.com/story/news...ion/561603002/

    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


    Sign in and post comments here.

    Please support our fight against illegal immigration by joining ALIPAC's email alerts here https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  2. #2
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    PARADISE (San Diego)
    Posts
    99,040
    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


    Sign in and post comments here.

    Please support our fight against illegal immigration by joining ALIPAC's email alerts here https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  3. #3
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    55,883
    Do not let them in, if they get in, roll them right back at. These are frauds and scammers. End all asylum into the US, right now. Do not delay, roll them all back out. If unelected courts want to take up executive operation of the country, we'll have US one big show down.
    A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
    Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  4. #4
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Posts
    4,815
    She said drug-cartel violence has also worsened in Honduras, as U.S. efforts to stop drug trafficking through the Caribbean have pushed routes through Honduras and Central America. Free-trade agreements with the U.S. also have exacerbated divisions between the rich and the poor, forcing working-class people to seek better economic opportunities elsewhere, Portillo said.

    The country is also grappling with major political turmoil in the wake of the November presidential election, which many Hondurans believe the incumbent, Juan Orlando Hernandez, won by fraud.


    After Orlando Hernandez was declared the winner, the Trump administration expressed support for his administration in battling corruption, while allowing the Honduran government to receive millions of dollars in U.S. aid., according to Newsweek.
    Why are we sending millions of $$$$ in aid AND TAKING IN THEIR PEOPLE?????? 1/3 of salvadorans already live here - now we should take in 1/3 of hondurans too!!!! This is a cheap labor SCAM! They don't like their new president so that means we should let them in to live for free and have anchor babies for free too. Plus blaming their drug problems as an economy on the US. And trade agreements - china makes everything even cheaper. Grow your produce, use your beaches for tourism, have solar farms - stop having so many kids, stop with the excuses already.

    We don't want these people here; they need to stand up for their country and their future generations on their own soil, not here.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  5. #5
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    55,883
    These "parents" are all scum, we don't want them here. We don't want people who would take their kids out of school, drag them on a 2,500 mile "walk" arranged by drug cartels to enter a country illegally. We don't want people who don't respect our nation, citizens, borders or laws. We don't want frauds and scammers, whiners and moochers. We want it all stopped and we want it stopped now. The American People do not want to spend one more penny paying Border Patrol, ICE, Immigration Judges, Immigration Prosecutors or Detention Facilities processing "asylum-seekers", "refugees", or "illegal aliens" of any type of race, origin, age or circumstance.

    NO PAPERS, NO ENTRY. PERIOD.

    SHUT IT ALL DOWN.
    A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
    Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  6. #6
    Moderator Beezer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2016
    Posts
    30,909
    GO HOME...ALL OF YOU

    WE DO NOT WANT YOU HERE!

    GO TO BRAZIL, GO TO CHINA, GO TO JAPAN, GO TO EUROPE, GO TO RUSSIA, GO TO AUSTRALIA, GO TO NORWAY

    JUST DO NOT COME HERE! GIVE THEM NOTHING BUT A BUS TICKET BACK TO CENTRAL AMERICA!

    THEY PAY COYOTES! GET ON A PLANE AND GO TO SOME OTHER COUNTRY!

    STOP TEARING AMERICAN FAMILIES APART BY FORCING US TO PAY FOR THIS, WE PAY THE PRICE FOR THEIR CRIME, POVERTY, DRUGS, RAPE, MURDER, GANGS, DESTRUCTION OF OUR NEIGHBORHOODS, OVERCROWD OUR SCHOOLS, OVERWHELM OUR HEALTH CARE SYSTEM!

    NO MORE ASYLYM FROM ANYWHERE!


    SEND EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD BACK OVER THE BORDER
    ILLEGAL ALIENS HAVE "BROKEN" OUR IMMIGRATION SYSTEM

    DO NOT REWARD THEM - DEPORT THEM ALL

  7. #7
    Senior Member European Knight's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Location
    France
    Posts
    4,548
    Caravan's asylum-seekers snub US warnings as they head toward border

    By Bradford Betz | Fox News


    Children have their breakfast at the "Vina de Tijuana AC" migrant shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, April 28, 2018. (Associated Press)

    U.S. immigration lawyers are telling Central Americans in a caravan of asylum-seekers that traveled through Mexico to the U.S. border in California that they face possible separation from their children and detention for many months.

    "We are the bearers of horrible news," a Los Angeles lawyer said during a break from legal workshops for the migrants at three Tijuana, Mexico, locations where about 20 lawyers gave free information and advice. "That's what good attorneys are for."

    The migrant caravan on Sunday will test the Trump administration's tough rhetoric criticizing the caravan when the migrants begin seeking asylum by turning themselves in to border inspectors at San Diego's San Ysidro border crossing.

    The Trump administration has been tracking the caravan, calling it a threat to the U.S. since it started in late March near the Mexico-Guatemala border.

    Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the caravan "a deliberate attempt to undermine our laws and overwhelm our system," pledging to send more immigration judges to the border to resolve cases if needed.


    Migrants have their breakfast at a shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, April 28, 2018. (Associated Press)


    Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said any asylum seekers making false claims to U.S. authorities could be prosecuted as could anyone who assists or coaches immigrants on making false claims.

    The San Ysidro crossing, which admits about 75,000 people a day into the U.S., may be unable to take asylum-seekers if it faces too many at once, forcing people to wait in Mexico until it has more room, according to San Diego’s field office director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.


    CBP said "several groups" of people in the caravan have entered the country illegally since Friday by climbing a dilapidated metal fence. It didn't say how many people.

    The lawyers who went to Tijuana denied coaching any of the roughly 400 people in the caravan. But some migrants reportedly received one-on-one counseling to assess the merits of their cases and groups of the migrants were told how asylum works in the U.S.

    Asylum-seekers are typically held up to three days at the border and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. If they pass an asylum officer's initial screening, they may be detained or released with ankle monitors.

    Nearly 80 percent of asylum-seekers passed the initial screening from October through December, the latest numbers available, but few are likely to eventually win asylum.

    Caravan's asylum-seekers snub US warnings as they head toward ...
    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  8. #8
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    55,883
    If you want to raise your blood pressure, turn to Fox News and watch coverage of the "migrants" sitting on top of the fence.
    A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
    Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  9. #9
    Moderator Beezer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2016
    Posts
    30,909
    Quote Originally Posted by Judy View Post
    If you want to raise your blood pressure, turn to Fox News and watch coverage of the "migrants" sitting on top of the fence.

    GET OUT THE FIRE HOSES! THESE PEOPLE CAN GO HOME AND BUILD AMERICA ON THEIR SOIL.

    WHAT DISGUSTING PEOPLE WITH NO MORALS, NO INTEGRITY, NO ALLEGIENCE TO THEIR COUNTRY!

    WE WANT NONE OF THEM. THEY HAVE NO PRIDE IN THEMSELVES OR THEIR COUNTRY...THAT IS NOT WHO WE WANT HERE!

    GET IN LINE LIKE THE 2 BILLION PEOPLE ON THE PLANET THAT "DREAM" OF COMING HERE!

    THEY HAVE NO RIGHT TO JUMP IN LINE IN FRONT OF THOSE APPLYING TO COME LEGALLY!

    SEND THEM ALL BACK.

    NOW THEY ARE A BRAZEN, MOUTHY, VIOLENT, SCREAMING THREAT TO OUR SECURITY!
    ILLEGAL ALIENS HAVE "BROKEN" OUR IMMIGRATION SYSTEM

    DO NOT REWARD THEM - DEPORT THEM ALL

  10. #10
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    55,883
    Hell with the hose, go with that fire foam. Dump it in huge amounts.
    A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
    Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. Some 200 migrants in Mexico caravan to seek U.S. asylum
    By JohnDoe2 in forum illegal immigration News Stories & Reports
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 04-10-2018, 11:01 AM
  2. After Trump’s victory, Manatee children of undocumented immigrants fear parents’ depo
    By lorrie in forum illegal immigration News Stories & Reports
    Replies: 22
    Last Post: 11-20-2016, 11:17 PM
  3. Charlotte legal team helps children seeking asylum in U.S.
    By JohnDoe2 in forum illegal immigration News Stories & Reports
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 02-12-2015, 05:58 PM
  4. Democrat's bill targets PARENTS for owning gun ~ now putting parents of children in
    By AirborneSapper7 in forum Other Topics News and Issues
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 01-27-2013, 06:44 PM
  5. Unaccompanied Children Seeking Asylum
    By JohnDoe2 in forum illegal immigration News Stories & Reports
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 03-25-2009, 03:34 PM

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •