Are migrant parents being deported without their kids?

Rafael Carranza
The Republic | azcentral.com
Migrants from Central America wait in line to ask for asylum outside U.S. Port of Entry in Nogales.

TUCSON — U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce G. Macdonald begins his daily hearings with the same set of legal instructions for the rotating roster of defense attorneys present in the cavernous federal courtroom. 

The proceedings were for Operation Streamline, a program that fast tracks deportations for large numbers of unauthorized migrants at once, sometimes as many as 75. 

But in the past week, Macdonald has added one more instruction for attorneys: Let him know if any of their clients have been separated from their children. And if so, "be sure to give information on their initials and date of birth," he instructs. 

For the past month, the judge has heard parent after parent expressing concerns, sometimes even breaking down in tears, about the whereabouts of their children. Border Patrol agents separated them after they recently crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. 

Most of the time, the attorney representing the parent raises those concerns. But sometimes, one of the parents pleads for help.

"If you are going to deport me, please deport me with my son," a sobbing Abel Ramirez Nicolas told Macdonald. "Even though I wouldn't want that. There are so many serious problems in my country, crime."

MORE: ICE to send 1,600 immigration violators to federal prisons

The Guatemalan migrant had crossed the Arizona border only two days before, saying he wanted a better, safer future for his son.

But under the federal government's "zero-tolerance" crackdown on illegal immigration, Ramirez Nicolas found himself in the Tucson court, convicted of a misdemeanor for illegal entry.

He said he didn't know what happened to his son after they were separated. Standing before the judge, he pleaded that they be reunited.

"We're still trying to figure out that process," Macdonald responded.

The new policy has led to similar cases along the U.S.-Mexico border in which worried migrant parents ask about their children's whereabouts while facing criminal charges. And it stokes fears that they will be deported without the children.

At least one advocacy group, Kids In Need of Defense, has already documented at least two cases earlier this year where U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement deported parents back to their home countries without their infant children, who remained in U.S. custody. 

The two deportations they recorded were to Guatemala and involved undocumented parents of an 11-month old and a 19-month old, said Jennifer Podkul, director of policy at KIND, a non-profit organization that provides legal assistance to unaccompanied minors seeking refuge in the United States.

The parents' deportations took place this spring, before the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy took effect, Podkul said. And the infant children have since been reunited with their parents in Guatemala.

Advocates fear that the new shift in policy will increase the likelihood that more migrant parents will be deported without their children.

MORE: AG Jeff Sessions vows to separate kids from parents at border

Minors called 'unaccompanied'

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the agency responsible for patrolling the border and enforcing immigration laws, has insisted it doesn't have an official policy on separating families at the border.

While that may be true, the rise in separations are a direct result of the "zero-tolerance" policy that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in April. Under this shift, all adults caught entering the U.S. illegally at the border, even first-time offenders, are referred to federal court for criminal prosecution.

Because minors are not allowed into criminal proceedings with adults, they are placed into government custody and classified as "unaccompanied," a situation that many advocates condemn.

"As a result of this totally cruel policy forcibly separating kids from parents, we are seeing clearly around the country children who are rendered unaccompanied ... even though they are clearly not unaccompanied children," said Lisa Frydman, KIND’s vice president of regional policy and initiatives.

Sessions has made it clear that the separations are meant as a deterrent.

"If people don't want to be separated from their children, they should not bring them with them," he told conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday. "We've got to get this message out. You're not given immunity."

So far, the family separations mostly have affected Central American migrants, especially those from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Mexico has an agreement with the United States that allows for the immediate deportation of minors apprehended at the border.

It's unclear how many prosecutions and family separations have happened under the policy.

In congressional testimony, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said that during a two-week period in May, agents removed 658 children from 638 adults along the border. 

CBP has not responded to requests for information on separations.

The process to separate families at the border, and, subsequently, to reunite them winds through three behemoth federal agencies: Homeland Security, which detains and deports the migrants; the Department of Justice, which prosecutes the parents; and the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement, which cares for minors apprehended at the border.

The bureaucratic maze has created a huge jurisdictional headache for parents seeking answers and navigating an already complex system, even with legal assistance.

"In the first days, it was just total shock," Tucson attorney Jessica Ruiz said. "It was a very sad scene. I mean, there were crying parents all over the courtroom,"  

Ruiz is a defense lawyer for migrants prosecuted through Operation Streamline in southern Arizona. Ruiz said she's represented three Guatemalan parents in the past month who were separated from their children.

"You could feel the chaos and the desperation in the clients speaking to you," she said. "And also feeling the desperation that you couldn't give them any answers."

MORE:  US-Mexico border arrests exceed 50,000 in May for illegal crossings

Consular offices looking for children

One potential avenue to help parents reunite with their children has been the consular offices from their countries of origin.

For example, the Guatemalan consulate in Tucson has been very active in the past few weeks working to locate separated family members.

Consul Carlos Enrique de Leon said the consulate assists its citizens at least three times throughout the process: after they are detained, before they head to court and before they are deported.

At the first point of contact —  during twice-a-day visits to Border Patrol's holding facility in Tucson — they learn about the separations and start the process to find the children.

Once they have information on the minors, the consulate reaches out to ORR to find out where they were sent and to establish communication between the parent and child.

At that point, De Leon said the parents have options. 

The first is that they can be deported without the child. That's the least common option, he said, with parents returning only if they have other children waiting for them back home.

"Many times the parent wants the child to stay with a relative in the U.S.," he said of the second option. "Or parents decide to be deported with the child after they've finished serving time at the detention center."

The consulate was unable to provide any statistics about the number of parents that were deported without their children, saying that information would have to be requested through the Guatemalan government.

'A huge shortfall in our system'

Despite the increase in family separations under the "zero-tolerance" policy, it still remains unclear what, if any, process is in place to ensure that parents are reunited with their children.

Leah Chavla, a human-rights lawyer at the Women’s Refugee Commission, said that means parents who are separated from their children may not know where the kids are by the time they're deported, or even if they're released into the U.S. 

"ICE isn't always asking, 'Hey, do you have kid?' before they're deported," Chavla said. "And people don't know to offer up that information. They assume that the government is going to know that information."

But she said federal immigration agents generally don't have that information.

"It's very ad hoc. It's a huge shortfall in our system," Chavla said. "That can result in permanent separation."

Chavlas commission has gotten so many calls from human-rights organizations in Central America that are bracing for an influx of confused, deported parents that they hosted a webinar in April to explain the convoluted U.S. system. 

This week, ICE issued informational fliers in English and Spanish with additional guidance about what to do when parents get separated from their children. 

The flier provides two hotline numbers that parents can call, one to locate and set up communication with their child, and another to reach the Office of Refugee Resettlement. 

"ICE and ORR work together to locate children, verify the parent/child relationship, and set up regular communication and removal coordination, if necessary," the flier reads.

MORE: Groups ask human-rights watchdog to stop the U.S. from separating families

Judge trying to help families reunite

In Tucson, Macdonald is hoping to find some answers for parents like Ramirez Nicolas. He issued a recommendation on the record that he and other parents separated from their children be reunited before being deported.

It's unclear whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the DHS agency that deports migrants, will honor the judge's recommendations.

Macdonald told the federal prosecutor overseeing Operation Streamline to look into mechanisms to help parents reunite, or at least find out where they're children are located.

Cosme Lopez, the spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona, said his office began conversations Wednesday with the other two agencies involved to see how they can facilitate that process.

Although he's been convicted for illegal entry, Ramirez Nicolas won't be deported for the time being. During his hearing in court, his attorney told the judge he claimed fear of persecution in Guatemala. 

Ramirez Nicolas plans to seek asylum in the United States. Though he'll remain in detention, the slow-moving process buys him more time to be reunited with his son. 

Alan Gomez of USA TODAY and Daniel Gonzalez of The Arizona Republic contributed to this story.

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