From August 5-11, 2018, I went to Harlingen, TX in the Rio Grande Valley, where I volunteered legal services to parents held inside a detention facility operated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). There, I met parents who were separated from their children. All fled targeted violence in their home countries and seek asylum here. Many parents there have been detained since May and ICE told them they would be reunited with their children. Some parents were even given back their clothing and told they were being processed for release only to find themselves locked in a room with no phones for days - over a week sometimes - only to be put back into handcuffs and re-booked back into the detention facility without explanation. And still no reunification with their kids.
Despite the crippling anxiety this process inflicts on them, I am touched by the stoic words from parents about their anxiety over what will happen to them or their children. Some children are still alone in immigration custody, many many miles from their parents.
One woman told me she feels like immigration took a piece of her away when authorities separated her from her 3-year old daughter. As far as she knows, her 3-year old is alone right now in immigration custody, hours away from her mother.
A father who was separated from his two children tells me that his kids were released to their mother in Maryland and they call the detention center frequently. They cry on the phone, asking him why he still has not been able to reunite with them. He doesn't know the answer himself. He says that an Immigration Judge at the detention facility told him that asylum will not save him even though he fled extreme violence and assassination attempts in his native country.
The hardest part for me, is the feeling of uncertainty. In these unprecedented times, it's often impossible for attorneys to advise people about what will happen to them or their children.