Thread: Mother, baby boy reunited after 5-month separation

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... s0410.html

Mother, baby boy reunited after 5-month separation

Michael Kiefer
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 10, 2007 12:00 AM

The coyote convinced Maria Tejeda Villa that it would be safer if she and her 10-month-old son crossed the border in separate groups, and against her better judgment, she let him take the boy.

That was in early November. She never made it across the border. Her son, Carlos, did, though Tejeda had no idea what had happened to him.

On Nov. 9, police found him in a raid on a drophouse in Phoenix. None of the adults there knew whose child he was, and he became a ward of the state.

But with the help of the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix, Tejeda found her baby.

On Monday, Carlos seemed surprisingly calm as he waited for the flight to Mexico, given all he had been through: a trip across the desert with strangers, a stay in a drophouse and months in foster care.

Carlos is the third child of Maria Tejedaand Domingo Perez, both of Puebla, Mexico. Perez had gone to New York to work while Tejeda was still pregnant with Carlos, and last fall, she decided to take himto meet his father.

"The coyote convinced her that he should give her child to him and that would be the most simple way to cross," said Jorge Solchaga, director of the protection department at the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix.

But Tejeda didn't make it across the border.When she made her way back to Nogales, Sonora, she called the consulate in Phoenix, trying to locate the child.

Meanwhile, the consulate requested a birth certificate and a copy of a photograph of mother and child but was told that DNA proof of maternity was needed. Solchaga contracted with a private laboratory and traveled to Nogales to meet with Tejeda to obtain blood and saliva samples.

At a hearing in February, Judge Ron Reinstein of Maricopa County Superior Court considered a request from the state and the child's appointed guardian to sever parental rights. Reinstein set a hearing for late April.

When the state received the DNA proof, Reinstein agreed to grant temporary custody to the consulate to fly Carlos to Mexico City to reunite with his mother at the Mexican government expense.

"The most important lesson here," Solchaga said, "is that there is no sacrifice worth losing a child over."

Tejeda, 24, and her mother, Tomasina Villa, waited nervously in the Mexico City airport for Carlos' flight to arrive. Tejeda blinked back tears as she waited for her son to emerge from customs. Then, out came a woman with Carlitos.

Tejeda did not run to consular official Gemma Carrasco, who traveled there with Carlos. Instead, she waited until they reached her before grabbing her baby and hugging him tightly.

"I'm so glad to see him. I love him so much, I'll never do this again," she said as tears streamed down her face.

As she turned away, she whispered "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" to the boy.

The coyote convinced Maria Tejeda Villa that it would be safer if she and her 10-month-old son crossed the border in separate groups, and against her better judgment, she let him take the boy.

Oh, I thought family values don't stop at the Rio Grande..she actually let a stranger take her baby..what a freaking idiot. That kid could have been sold. She was damn lucky.