Continúan Atropellos De Agentes De Inmigración A Familias De Inmigrantes

En Texas, guardias armados se llevaron por la fuerza a 16 padres del centro de detención de Kames County, donde estaban detenidos con sus hijos luego de que sus familias fueran separadas en la frontera y se volvieran a reunir. 

Las autoridades habrían tomado la medida de volver a separar a estos padres e hijos como represalia por haber organizado una protesta no violenta en el centro de detención. 

Muchos de los padres encarcelados denunciaron haber sido engañados por el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE) que les hizo firmar acuerdos de deportación en inglés diciendo que eran los papeles para la reunificación familiar. Las familias ya han sido nuevamente reunificadas y algunas han sido liberadas. 

A continuación la entrevista con CASEY MILLER y MANOJ GOVINDAIAH del colectivo de asistencia jurídica para inmigrantes RAICES, con sede en Texas. 

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m AMY GOODMAN, as we turn now to Texas, where armed guards forcibly removed 16 fathers from an immigrant jail where they were held with their sons after being separated at the border and then reunited. A boy held at the Karnes County detention center, who’s under the age of 10, spoke to reporters Friday and described what happened through an interpreter. 

INTERPRETER: [translating IMMIGRANT CHILD] He recalls that he was in the school playground playing with his friends and that he was called. He was asked to go into an office, and that’s where he was hold that his dad would meet him soon, but didn’t know when. The child said that he asked for his dad and that he was crying, but nobody told him anything. He kept begging. He kept asking for some result, for some responses, and nothing was told to him. He mentions that he was taken into another room with other kids. And like I mentioned before, nothing was responded to them. He says, “I was crying. I cried the whole day. And I knew that my dad was crying. I saw the other kids crying, and the kids knew that their dads would be crying, as well.” 

AMY GOODMAN: The child was speaking to reporters on the phone through an interpreter from the detention center. The reseparation of more than a dozen fathers and sons came in apparent retaliation for their plans to organize a nonviolent protest calling for all of them to be released. This is one of the fathers speaking to reporters by phone from detention Friday. 

IMMIGRANT FATHER: [translated] I was talking to other detainees, and there is a plan. We will not be eating, and everyone has agreed. We are doing so because we do not know what will happen to us, and we need to know if we will be deported or given an opportunity to stay here. We are asking the government to free us. We want to be freed. We are not criminals. We want to be freed, because, as a human being, we deserve to be. 

AMY GOODMAN: Many of the imprisoned fathers said they had been tricked into signing deportation agreements in English that ICE told them were reunification papers. Hillary Clinton tweeted about their reseparation, writing, quote, “This is a heart-wrenching disgrace.” Late on Friday, the fathers were reunited with their sons, and on Saturday some were released. 

For more, we go to San Antonio, about an hour north of the Karnes County detention center, where we’re joined by MANOJ GOVINDAIAH, director of family detention services for RAICES, a Texas-based legal aid group for IMMIGRANT CHILDren, families and refugees, and by CASEY MILLER, legal assistant for RAICES, who was denied access to their child clients after the fathers were taken away. 

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Casey, let’s begin with you. Describe exactly what has taken place here in this last week. 

CASEY MILLER: Oh, it’s just been terror, honestly. So, from reports from the father, we have heard that 60 to a hundred ICE agents, who were armed, stormed the building with riot gear, and these men were forcibly taken from their rooms and not told where they were going. And then they were taken to another detention center, which was—told to me by a few men, was the worst of any of the detention centers they’ve been to, in Pearsall, Texas, not told the whereabouts of their sons, and their sons were actually not told the whereabouts of their fathers. So, ICE is just keeping them in the dark and continually torturing them psychologically. 

AMY GOODMAN: How old are the children? 

CASEY MILLER: Oh, you know, they are so resilient, so they are hanging in there. I think they’re relieved to be reunited with their fathers. And they’re, you know, getting through these multiple traumas the best that they can. You know, a lot of them feel to be a little numb. There’s a lot of sadness still and, I think, a lot of fear that this might happen again. So, they’re just trying to get through each day, really. 

AMY GOODMAN: So, explain what went down on Wednesday. Talk about the ICEraid on Karnes. 

CASEY MILLER: So, we don’t have—I was not actually there on Wednesday. All I have are stories from the fathers. So, what it sounds like is the men were gathered. There was a group of men gathered outside of the lunchroom, and they were talking about coming to see us at RAICES, their legal services, to find out the status of like their cases. And a guard for the private prison company GEO came up to them and asked them what they were talking about, and they told him. And after that, he walked off. 

And a few hours later, some of them were in their rooms, got a knock on the door. Again, men with shields, helmets, some of them armed, forcibly pulled them out of their room and told them nothing, just took them to a room where they sat for six hours. Many of them asked for water. They weren’t even given water. And they weren’t told anything of where they were going. And then they got on a bus. And I read a report from one of the men that there was another little microvan behind them, and they were hoping and praying that their children were in that van, which to no avail. 

And they were taken to the other detention center and put into isolation, into, what I said before, some of the worst conditions that these men had been in so far, were not able to leave the room. Heard two reports of one man vomiting blood, another man trying to hang himself with a bed sheet while he was there. They couldn’t speak between cells. And all of their food was brought to the cell and put through a slot. And they were eventually—

AMY GOODMAN: And then? 

CASEY MILLER: The next day, they were eventually taken to—back to Karnes, where they were eventually reunited with their sons. 

AMY GOODMAN: ICE spokesperson Nina Pruneda said about 40 men were involved in what she called a “disturbance” at Karnes, and said, quote, ”ICE San Antonio deployed additional law enforcement resources to control the situation, and a precautionary measure, instructed all visitors to leave the facility.” MANOJ GOVINDAIAH, can you respond to that statement, that description of what took place from ICE? 

MANOJ GOVINDAIAH: Well, from our understanding in talking to our staff and our volunteers who were present on Wednesday and who were escorted out of the building around 12:30 in a haste manner, and then from talking to the fathers and the children, it appears the dads were not involved in any particular kind of disturbance. As Casey mentioned, many of the fathers were in their rooms when ICEagents came to their rooms, knocked on the door, verified their identity, and then immediately took them into a separate room away from their kids. 

It’s also our understanding that the children were in school at the time, so the kids, many of—many of the kids did not even see any of this happening, and that the children were denied access to RAICES. We tried to see them multiple times on Wednesday and Thursday of last week. They were denied access to come and see us. It’s our understanding that the kids also tried to come see us. 

Our staff went to Pearsall on Thursday, where the 16 men were being held. They were denied access there, as well. Our staff were denied access to the men at Pearsall. And even after they were reunited at Karnes Thursday evening, during legal visitation hours, we were unable to see them there. 

An ICE agent confirmed to our—one of our attorneys that the disruptive behavior was that the men were refusing to “go with the flow” and that they were—some of them were not sending their kids to school. Some of them were not participating in activities at the detention center. And that was exactly the type of protest that the men were hoping to do, which was to choose not to avail themselves of services at the detention center, to choose not to have their children go to school. Some were choosing not to eat. And so, it clearly sounds like this is retaliation against nonviolent, lawful protest. And whatever ICE is saying to justify this seems completely, completely untrue. 

AMY GOODMAN: Is it illegal for the authorities not to allow you to speak to the children or the parents? We’re talking about—you’re their legal representative. 

MANOJ GOVINDAIAH: Yes, we are their lawyers. And, yes, it is, actually. ICE has brought discretion over, you know, visitation hours, and if somebody is in a particular type of housing, then when they can actually see their lawyers. But, you know, especially in terms of the children, ICE flat-out told us, you know, “Oh, it’s Thursday afternoon. The kids are eating pizza and watching a movie. Do you really want to talk to them?” After we pushed and pushed, ICE agreed to go and ask the children, “Do you want to see the lawyers at RAICES?” And they went and asked the kids, and came back and told us, apparently, that the children wanted to wait until their fathers were returned, and that dad and son together would come and see us. 

Additionally, there is an outtake processing and an intake processing, both of which take a couple of hours. And even though our clients are physically in the building, if they’re going through outtake, which is what the dads were going through when they were transferred to Pearsall, or if they’re going through intake, which is what the dads were going through when they were returned to Karnes, we are also unable to see our clients during that time. 

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn back to the jailed boy at Karnes County detention center who was separated from his dad, not once, but twice, and has been detained for months since they first came to the U.S. border. The boy had this message for President Trump. 

IMMIGRANT CHILD: [translated] I want to tell the president to, please, please let us out. Please release us. Give us the opportunity to stay here to have a better future. … Don’t deport us, please. Please don’t deport us from here, because I want to go forward with my dad and not take a step backwards. 

AMY GOODMAN: MANOJ GOVINDAIAH, we didn’t identify him because he’s not identifying himself. Do you know who he is and if he’s still in or has been released? 

MANOJ GOVINDAIAH: Yes, we do know who he is. He is one of our clients, as is his father. I believe, as of Friday last week, they, he and his father, were still detained at the Karnes detention center. We will be checking this morning to see if they have been released over the weekend. 

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you both for—

CASEY MILLER: And I—

AMY GOODMAN: Oh, Casey, last words? 

CASEY MILLER: I was just going to say, and I met with both him and his father after the interview, and they both seemed in better spirits and hopeful about their release. 

AMY GOODMAN: Some of the fathers in your meeting broke down crying? 

CASEY MILLER: Yes, yes, all of them did. They’ve just been tortured psychologically by ICE time and time again, and they’re just fearful that anything like this could happen again at any time. And they’ve just had everything, you know, pushed upon them and are at the breaking point. So, yes, every man I met with at some point did break down in tears. 

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you both for being with us. We’ll continue to be on this story. CASEY MILLER and MANOJ GOVINDAIAH, with RAICES, the Texas-based legal aid group for immigrants. 

De otra parte en San Bernardino, California, agentes del Servicio estadounidense de Inmigración y control de Aduanas (ICE por su sigla en inglés), arrestaron el miércoles a un hombre que conducía a su esposa embarazada al hospital para dar a luz. 

La escena generó gran indignación social. Los agentes del ICE detuvieron a Joel Arrona-Lara cuando paró el auto en una estación de gasolina y obligaron a su esposa parturientta, María del Carmen Venegas, a manejar ella misma hasta el hospital donde tenía programada su cesárea. 

La pareja vive en Estados Unidos hace más de 10 años y tienen cinco hijos e hijas, contando el que acaba de nacer. 



Para ampliar esa información, vea (en inglés) nuestra conversación con el abogado de Joel Arrona-Lara, RUSSELL JAUREGUI, integrante del equipo jurídico del Centro de Servicio Comunitario de San Bernardino. 

AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in California, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained and arrested a man who was taking his pregnant wife to the hospital to give birth. Joel Arrona-Lara was driving his wife MARIA DEL CARMEN VENEGAS to a San Bernardino hospital Wednesday morning for a scheduled C-section when ICE agents detained him at a gas station. Surveillance video shows two ICE vehicles surrounding the couple’s car immediately after they pulled into the station to get gas. MARIA DEL CARMEN VENEGAS said agents asked the couple for identification, but that her husband had left his documents at home in the rush to get to the hospital. ICE agents then handcuffed him and took him into custody, leaving the 9-month-pregnant Venegas at the gas station sobbing in distress. She then drove herself to the hospital and gave birth alone several hours later. 

ICE said, in a statement, Joel Arrona-Lara was detained because he’s wanted in Mexico on homicide charges. But Arrona-Lara’s lawyer says the charges are unconfirmed and that he has no criminal record. Videos of the incident circulated online over the weekend, sparking national outrage. But ICE issued a statement saying, quote, ”ICE will no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement. All of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States.” 

Here’s MARIA DEL CARMEN VENEGAS speaking about her husband’s detention from the hospital. 

MARIA DEL CARMEN VENEGAS: [translated] It’s very difficult, because he’s always been there. And he told me that everything was going to be OK, that I shouldn’t worry, that we were going to meet the baby, things like that. So, to be alone yesterday as I was, I felt terrible. 

AMY GOODMAN: Arrona-Lara and his wife have been living in the United states for 12 years. They have five children, three of whom are U.S. citizens. Arrona-Lara is the sole breadwinner for his family. His wife Maria is asking for his immediate release. 

For more, we go to RUSSELL JAUREGUI, staff attorney at the San Bernardino Community Service Center, lawyer for Joel Arrona-Lara, Maria’s husband. 

Welcome to Democracy Now! Russell, can you start off by explaining exactly what took place last week? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: Well, what happened on August 15th, Wednesday morning, about 10:00, was Mr. Lara was taking his wife to the hospital because she was going to give birth to a baby via C-section. They stopped at a gas station in San Bernardino on the corner of Mountain View and Highland. It was an ARCO station. He got out to get gas, and immediately he was—they were surrounded by two SUVs. ICE agents then approached his wife, asked for her ID, which she produced. And then the ICE agents approached him and asked for his ID, which he did not have, because in the haste of leaving his home to get his wife to the hospital, he just forgot it. And so his wife pleaded with the officers to allow him to go home and to get his ID, because, in fact, they live just right down the corner from the glass—excuse me, from gas station. He was not allowed to do so. He was immediately arrested. And as you said, she basically panicked and had to drive herself to the hospital. And that’s basically what happened on that day. 

AMY GOODMAN: So, both she and he had ID, had a form of documents? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: Correct. He had some kind of form. It probably was a—we don’t know exactly what kind of ID that he had. I’m guessing it was probably a driver’s license here in California, because here in California all people, including undocumented, have the right to have—apply for and obtain a California driver’s license. So, he may have had a California driver’s license. He may have a Mexican ID. So he did have a form of ID, but they did not allow him to go and get it. And he just lived down the block from the gas station. 

AMY GOODMAN: So, Maria went to—drove herself to the hospital, and she gave birth—

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: Correct. 

AMY GOODMAN: —a few hours later? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: She gave birth, and, yeah, a few hours—I don’t know exactly when, but she did give birth to the baby, and the baby was born, you know, thank God, safely. And she was released from the hospital just this last Saturday. 

AMY GOODMAN: So she was alone when she gave birth? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: Yes. Well, yeah, she was without her husband, correct, and the baby’s father. 

AMY GOODMAN: We see her inside the gas station, it seems hysterical, speaking on the phone, just through the closed-circuit video. 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: Right. 

AMY GOODMAN: So, can you explain why ICE has said they picked him up? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: Well, at first, he was just arrested for not having an ID. And it wasn’t until Thursday—almost three days later, where they made a statement about him—them detaining him because of him having an arrest warrant in Mexico for a homicide. Well, number one, he’s been here 12 years, and this has never been an issue with him before. Number two, he completely denies that, saying that “I’ve never had any kind of arrest warrant in Mexico.” And number three, we have reviewed the charging documents from him, from the immigration—from the ICEagents, and the—just basically, the charging documents allege that he came without status, that he is from Mexico, and therefore he is removable from the United States. Does not mention anything about any kind of homicide arrest in Mexico. And since he’s been detained, what he tells me is no one’s ever brought this to his attention. 

AMY GOODMAN: So, what rights does he have right now? Where is he being held? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: He’s being held at the Theo Lacy detention center. He does have a right to a bond hearing before an immigration judge in immigration court. He does have the right to counsel. We’re going to represent him pro bono. He does have the right to pursue a bond hearing to see, determine if he can be released. We’re hoping that he can, given his length of time here in the United States and the fact that he does have three U.S. citizen children. And then, if he is, hopefully, released on bond, then his case will continue with the immigration courts, where he’ll be pursuing his, hopefully, relief during a removal hearing before an immigration judge, where he’ll have to prove that, you know, his U.S. citizen kids will suffer exceptional and extreme and unusual hardships without him if he’s removed. 

AMY GOODMAN: Has he—

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: And this process could take one or two years. 

AMY GOODMAN: Has he gotten to see his infant son and his wife? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: No, he has not. I know he’s been in touch with his wife, but he has not been able to see his son. So, that’s—

AMY GOODMAN: Could he—

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: Our main goal is to get him released, so he can be with his family and see his son. That’s our main goal right now. 

AMY GOODMAN: Is it possible he would be deported before seeing his son? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: I don’t think that’s going to—I don’t believe that’s going to happen. You know, his wife, she’s a family member, so she does have visitation rights to see him. But right now, given her condition, because the baby was just born, I don’t think she’s in a condition to go see him right now. 

AMY GOODMAN: Was this issue of a homicide charge brought up after the outcry grew over that day and the next day, when people saw the video? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: That’s a very good question. I think, yeah, it was. It was. And so, the timing of this is kind of odd, because this happened, I believe, after the video went viral, after the public outcry. And so, that’s when this announcement was made, on Saturday, which is almost what? Three days after he was arrested. 

AMY GOODMAN: “Zero tolerance.” Is this under the “zero tolerance” policy? And can you see this policy changing? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: I think this is more—”zero tolerance” is what’s happening with the—on the border with the unaccompanied minors. This is more, I think, of the Trump administration’s policy of basically everyone now being at risk of being—anybody here without status as being at risk of being detained and arrested. But as you can see, this has human consequences. It affects, you know, U.S. citizen kids. There’s nothing in—I don’t think ICE has any protocol for dealing with people who are transporting their spouses, you know, who are about to give birth. And so, you know, as we can see with other situations, this reminds me of the case where the—I think it was a young girl who was passing through a border checkpoint in Texas, who had serious disabilities, and ICE followed her all the way to the hospital. And this is like the children at the border who have been detained, separated from their parents, with no plan for reunification. This is just—this is egregious acts, and they’re cruel. And so, there needs to be some kind of change in policy, and, if not, some kind of change in—some change in administration. 

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you so much for being with us, RUSSELL JAUREGUI, staff attorney at the San Bernardino Community [Service] Center. He is the lawyer for Joel Arrona-Lara, who was picked up by ICE agents as he was driving his wife to the hospital to give birth.

Fuente: www.democracynow.org 

http://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a3878-continuan-arrestos-a-familias-de-inmigrantes-por-parte-de-ICE.html

Laura Gottesdiener de Democracy Now! se sentó a conversar con una madre salvadoreña llamada Belqui Yessenia Castillo Cortez, que se reencontró con su hijo de tres años de edad, Michael, la semana pasada, tras haber sido separados por los funcionarios de inmigración en la frontera en Texas. 

Los documentos federales muestran que madre e hijo llegaron al puerto legal de ingreso en la ciudad de Río Grande el 28 de mayo de 2018 para solicitar asilo en Estados Unidos. Las autoridades de inmigración los detuvieron, luego los separaron y a Belqui la mandaron al Centro de Detención Port Isabel en Texas, mientras que su hijo de tres años de edad fue llevado en avión a la ciudad de Nueva York. Allí estuvo alojado en un lugar administrado por una agencia de servicios humanos llamada Abbott House. “Su comportamiento es realmente agresivo”, afirma la mujer. “No era así antes… Es violento, más que nada”. 

Compartimos parte de la entrevista que hiciera democracynow a Belqui Yessenia Castillo

 

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AMY GOODMAN: We end today’s show looking at the emotional and psychological impact of family separation. On Wednesday, Democracy Now!’s Laura Gottesdiener sat down with a Salvadoran mother named Belqui Yessenia Castillo Cortez. She reunited with her 3-year-old son Michael last week, after they were separated by immigration officials at the border in Texas. Federal documents show the mother and son arrived at the legal port of entry in Rio Grande City on May 28th to apply for asylum in the U.S. Immigration authorities detained them, then separated them, sending Belqui to the Port Isabel Detention Center in Texas, while her 3-year-old son was flown all the way here to New York and held in a facility run by a human services agency called Abbott House. Laura began by asking Belqui what it was like to be reunited with her son on July 11th. 

BELQUI YESSENIA CASTILLO CORTEZ: [translated] Suddenly they called me. And, oh, it was so beautiful, because it had been 41 days without my son, and I felt like I couldn’t any longer. The reunion with my son was something—well, it was emotional, but also sad, because he didn’t react the way his mother—the way I imagined he would have reacted. He just turned and looked at me. He didn’t cry. He just looked into my eyes. He looked at me and never broke his gaze. No, it wasn’t easy. It was beautiful to reunite with him. But to be confronted with this, no. A week has passed, exactly. At the beginning, it was the same. He didn’t seem to love me very much. But now, thank God, it’s changing a bit. Now he knows our family. Now he has remembered, because—well, maybe it’s more like he never forgot. It was just the feelings that he had, because he felt abandoned. 

LAURA GOTTESDIENER: And are there any changes in his attitude or his behavior or personality? 

BELQUI YESSENIA CASTILLO CORTEZ: [translated] Yes, there are differences. His behavior is really aggressive. He doesn’t listen to me at all. Yes, I am having this problem, because since we arrived, he’s been acting this way. And he wasn’t like this before. I went with him in buses the whole way. And imagine coming from El Salvador to the United States by bus. He would have had to—I would have had to return with a child like this. But, then, he traveled really calmly. I brought him from there to here, and everything was fine, because, in truth, he wasn’t like this before. Because to travel six hours, eight hours, on a bus with a child as he’s acting now, I imagine I would have had to return to my country. But, no, he held out 'til the 28th of May, and now he's acting very differently. 

LAURA GOTTESDIENER: What differences do you see? You said he was acting a bit aggressively. How does this manifest? 

BELQUI YESSENIA CASTILLO CORTEZ: [translated] Yes. He doesn’t listen. He’s violent, more than anything else, with me. Ever since he was released to me, he doesn’t listen to me anymore. Sometimes he hits me. The day we reunited, the reunion, it was like he felt hurt that I had left him. Something like that. I felt like he had something that he wanted to tell me, but at his age he just couldn’t express it, because he just stayed looking at me with a face, with a gaze, that told me everything. 

LAURA GOTTESDIENER: Why did you come here? Why did you decide to come? 

BELQUI YESSENIA CASTILLO CORTEZ: [translated] Because I’m in danger in my country. I’m in danger because of the gangs, because of the discrimination, the threats. The same person who raped me in January 2014 is the person who left me pregnant with my child. I was discriminated against in my country for being a lesbian. They beat me, even some of my friends, when I was in 16. And the father, if I can call him that, he raped me for the same reason, for being a lesbian, and with the aim of making me pregnant. 

I want a future, I want to begin a future with a person I love, to marry. I also want that. I want to be happy with my child and my family. I also want protection and the support I don’t have in my country. This is why I came, for a happy future, because up until now, it hasn’t. I have never had any freedom, not even with the girlfriends I’ve had, absolutely nothing. It’s as if we’re not there. We’ve always been hidden. It hasn’t been freedom or happiness, not at all. 

AMY GOODMAN: That was Belqui Yessenia Castillo Cortez, separated from her 3-year-old boy Michael for 41 days. She just reunited with him. She was speaking with Democracy Now!'s Laura Gottesdiener. The video produced by Anna Barsan and Cinthya Santos. Special thanks to Ali Toxtli. In 3-year-old Michael's discharge papers from Abbott House here in New York, a clinician described the child as having a “laidback personality and a quiet disposition” who interacts “positively and kindly with peers.” But she also wrote, “He has had some difficulty adapting to the program. During admission he would cry continuously and ask for his biological mother, Belqui.” 

Analizamos los impactos psicológicos que la separación familiar tiene en los menores, con Nancy Burke. Burke es psicoanalista y vicepresidente de la organización Psychotherapy Action Network que colaboró con la publicación de un folleto destinado a ayudar a los padres migrantes separados de sus hijos. 

Además es miembro del plantel de profesores del Centro para el Psicoanálisis de Chicago y la Escuela Geinberg de Medicina de Northwestern University. Burke afirma que el trauma que los niños están experimentando en los centros de detención “los congela en el tiempo” y les anula la capacidad de expresars, a continuación parte de la entrevista de democracynow con la psicoanalista

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AMY GOODMAN: Well, for more on the psychological impacts family separation has on young children, we’re joined by Dr. Nancy Burke. Dr. Nancy Burke is a psychoanalyst and a co-chair of the Psychotherapy Action Network, which has helped to publish a pamphlet aimed at helping immigrant parents separated from their children understand their different children who return. She’s on the faculty of the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis and the Feinberg School of Medicine with Northwestern University. 

Dr. Burke, welcome to Democracy Now! As we’re looking at this story, the little boy, Michael, her little boy that she’s just reunited with, over a month away from him, is biting apart a Nerf football. And through the hour—it was an extended interview—he bit the whole thing apart. Talk about the effect on these children. 

NANCY BURKE: [inaudible] say is that normal reactions—I don’t like to use the word “normal,” but I’m going to use it in this case, because I want to emphasize that normal reactions to abnormal circumstances look abnormal. So, if you saw a child in a playgroup chewing on a Nerf ball, biting it to pieces, you would be very confused about that. But we can appreciate that children, who don’t have language and they don’t have a way to express their needs and they don’t have a way to express what’s frightening to them, would act out in their bodies. And that’s something that we know over and over again. It’s something that parents hopefully haven’t had to see so much of. 

And we thought that was our role, to be able to tell parents these are normal reactions to very abnormal circumstances. And this is really—reunification with children who have been through the circumstance is really—it’s either an opportunity or a real nodal point, that can be extremely difficult after all of the hope and all of the final relief in the reunification. So, you know, we wanted to be able to impart that knowledge to parents so that they have some sense of what to expect and how to react. 

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about this brochure. It’s not geared to the general public. You’re doing it for the separated parents, who, so excited if they finally accomplish this feat of finding their children, separated by the Trump administration, that they find such different children. 

NANCY BURKE: Absolutely. And they don’t expect it. If you are in that circumstance, all of your interest, all of your hope is going to be focused on reunification. And that seems like an end to the story in itself and a happy ending, and all the more shocking than when it isn’t. And so, we wanted to be able to use our knowledge, the things that we sit with in our office every day when we talk to people who have been traumatized, people who are adults who have been traumatized as children. We know some things about what to expect and what the sequelae of trauma are, and how long-lasting they are, how they show up. And we wanted to be able to offer that, because, first of all, we just wanted to be able to prepare parents, who really aren’t prepared psychologically. They’re really prepared to be reunited, and they’re prepared to—you know, for that one moment. And they don’t really brace themselves—how could they?—for the long, long period of recovery afterwards. 

AMY GOODMAN: And what about these children that have been drugged? You have heard these previous reports we brought you, kids who were shot up with—it’s not even clear what drugs, when they cry for their mothers or for their fathers. 

NANCY BURKE: This is a really just devastating and terrible thing, because one of the things that we know is that children who are traumatized don’t have access to their feelings, and therefore can’t put them in words, can’t structure them, can’t use relationships in order to be able to make them manageable. And what this does is, essentially, it gives children a lack of access to be able to express themselves. So, in essence, it freezes them in time, and it does so in a way that’s very frightening. They suddenly don’t even know themselves. And their parents can’t know them, either. So, we’re very concerned about these reports. 

AMY GOODMAN: We have less than a minute, but the long-term impact of this trauma and what resources do these parents have? I mean, Belqui, who we just played her story, is wearing an ankle monitor. You know, it’s put on by the U.S. government. She is tracked everywhere. But what resources do they have to help their children? 

NANCY BURKE: You know, when we gave this pamphlet, really, it’s a symbol that there are other resources out there, and there are organizations of concern. It really will take a village, a very long time. We did leave a space on the pamphlet for information about local organizations. We highlighted United Way, Freedom for Immigrants. We highlighted Informed Immigrant. And we wanted people to know that there were organizations. But on our pamphlet, we were really happy to be able to add something from Fred Rogers, who’s helped so many American children over the years over TV, because one of the things that he says over and over again is, “When you’re in trouble, find a helper.” And we want to encourage people to reach out. One thing we know is that trauma tends to silence people, and it tends to not be spoken of. And so, we just wanted the pamphlet to be a catalyst, so that things that weren’t thought to be spoken of could really be spoken of with people who can help. 

AMY GOODMAN: Nancy Burke, we want to thank you so much for being with us, psychoanalyst, co-chair of the Psychotherapy Action Network. We will link to the pamphlet you published, aimed at helping immigrant parents separated from their children. 

Fuente: https://www.democracynow.org 

http://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a3855-traumas-en-menores-separados-de-sus-padres.html

Residents on Both Sides of the Border Try to Help Asylum Seekers Illegally Turned Away by U.S. Gov’t

Under President Trump’s new “zero tolerance” policy, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has called for people seeking asylum to follow the law and go to official ports of entry to request help. But asylum seekers at international bridges across the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas have been blocked by Border Patrol agents who say they are unable to process them. 

In some cases, asylum seekers—including women and young children—have been told to wait for days and even weeks on international bridges over the border, often in extreme heat. Residents on both sides of the border have responded by bringing food, water and clothing to people as they wait to be processed. Democracy Now! producer Renée Feltz followed some of them as they delivered aid, and interviewed Jennifer Harbury, a human rights lawyer who has lived in the Rio Grande Valley for over 40 years, about the significance of the United States rejecting legal requests by asylum seekers, detaining them at length, and in some cases deporting them after separating them from their children. 

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Under President Trump’s new “zero tolerance” policy, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has called for people seeking asylum to follow the law and go to official ports of entry to request help. But asylum seekers at international bridges across the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas have been blocked by Border Patrol agents who say they are unable to process them. In same cases, asylum seekers, including women and young children, have been told to wait for days, and even weeks, on international bridges over the border, often in extreme heat. 

AMY GOODMAN: Residents on both sides of the border have responded by bringing food and water and clothing to people as they wait to be processed. Democracy Now!’s Renée Feltz followed them as they dropped off donations Sunday at one of the busiest ports of entry in the Rio Grande Valley. 

NAYELLY BARRIOS: My name is Nayelly Barrios. We are on the bridge that connects Reynosa to Hidalgo, Mexico to the U.S. We are right in the middle point of the bridge, right over the river, the Rio Grande river. Behind me are—I believe it’s three Border Patrol agents, asking for individuals’—to glance at individuals’ documentation. They’re not scanning them or anything. They don’t have any of that machinery out here. They just have—they’re just checking to see that they have the documents. Border Patrol agents usually do not stand at that point. 

So, I was born in Reynosa, and I’ve lived in the U.S. most of my life. I’m a U.S. citizen now. I first heard about the individuals that were stranded on Sunday. And the main reason is, I just thought, “Imagine if I were there, myself, stranded on a bridge, day and night, with very few resources, just whatever I brought on me, you know, while I made the trip.” 

So, this one time, on Wednesday, we were getting ready to head out. We had been on the bridge for an hour and a half, distributing, talking to the people, asking them specifically what some of them might need, and we write it down. And there was this—we were about to head out, and one of the ladies who helps out there—she lives in Reynosa—and she told us, “Go look at that—go talk to that woman that’s standing.” She was about six yards away from the main group of asylum seekers, and she was just standing there with a little girl. And she looked really sad and confused and lost. And so, you know, we went to go ask her, “Are you here to seek asylum?” Because they’re not letting people cross, we just wanted to explain to her that it was best for her, instead of standing there, to go join the group. And she was not—she was not responsive. She was just looking at us like “I don’t want to talk to you.” I had never seen such a terrified look on someone. It was like she was defenseless and just terrified and—

UNIDENTIFIED: Holding onto her daughter. 

NAYELLY BARRIOS: She was holding onto her kid, yes. And the kid looked about 6, maybe 7. 

UNIDENTIFIED: Yeah. 

NAYELLY BARRIOS: She was looking around like—

UNIDENTIFIED: “Can I trust you?” 

NAYELLY BARRIOS: Yes. She didn’t know if she could trust us. She did not want to open up. And I told her, “You look tired. You must be very tired.” I told her—all in Spanish, of course. I told her, “I don’t know what you must have been through, but you can rest over here. We’ve got some food. We’ve got water, clothes for your kid, as well. Come join the group, until it’s your turn. And we’ll explain to you, you know, what’s been happening here.” And so, it took a while, and then I like gently put my arm on her—on her shoulder, like to try and guide her, like to tell her like it’s fine. So then she started letting her guard down a little bit. And as she started following me to where the group was, she started crying. It’s like she finally let her guard down and—

UNIDENTIFIED: Felt relief. 

NAYELLY BARRIOS: I think she felt—I feel like it was relief, yeah. 

UNIDENTIFIED: Mm-hmm, looked like it. 

NAYELLY BARRIOS: And then, once I got her to the group, and the—one of the other volunteers that was there, from Reynosa, the woman that I was mentioning, she started talking to her. And then the girl just—well, the woman, she looked so young, with her little girl—just started crying, like more all-out crying. Yeah, I feel like it was relief that she started feeling, that, “Finally, I’m not by myself. Somebody’s taking me in,” and maybe also a little bit scared that “Why wasn’t it that easy for me to just go in and ask for asylum? Why am I having to wait in this line with all these people?” She probably really wasn’t expecting that. 

AMY GOODMAN: That was Nayelly Barrios at the port of entry, or international bridge, that connects Reynosa, Mexico, where she was born, to McAllen, Texas, where she lives nearby as a U.S. citizen. 

And now we’re going to turn to another person Renée Feltz interviewed while in South Texas, Jennifer Harbury, a human rights lawyer who has lived in the Rio Grande Valley for over 40 years. Her husband, Efraín Bámaca Velásquez, was a Mayan comandante and guerrilla who was disappeared after he was captured by the Guatemalan army in the 1980s. She later found there was U.S. involvement in the cover-up about her husband’s murder and torture. 

JENNIFER HARBURY: My name is Jennifer Harbury. I’m a human rights attorney and also a human rights activist, and have been for many years. I think most of you know I was involved in Guatemala during the dirty wars and during the genocidal campaign in the '80s and lost my husband there. I've stayed very close to friends all across Central America, and I understand why they’re fleeing northwards. It’s very clear, and it’s very tragic. And to see people being turned away here or punished for asking for asylum really breaks my heart. My father was 11 when he arrived at Ellis Island fleeing Hitler. I don’t want to think what would have happened if those children had been torn away from their parents at that point in time. They were terrified. They were alone. They were totally dependent on their parents. It’s just—it’s a very ugly chapter of U.S. history right now. 

Let’s say it’s a three-pronged attack on refugees—not on cartel people. Cartel people have millions and millions of dollars. If they want to get into the United States, they can buy the passport. They can buy the police officer. They can buy a boat and an airplane. They don’t need to send scrawny, terrified refugees to swim the river and nearly drown, you know, to do their dirty work for them. They don’t need to do that. They’re way past it. So, the war that we’ve declared is on the victims of the cartels: the moms with babies, the 15-year-olds that are running from trafficking, the boy that could either work with the cartels or die and whose parents were killed in retaliation when he fled—those kinds of people. We’re supposed to be helping them. 

Under U.S. law, you are permitted to come to the U.S. port of entry—that’s the checkpoint at the border—and say, “I’m in danger in my home country. I need to apply for political asylum.” You then get sent for a credible fear interview to see if that story is reasonable or not. And if it is, you get sent to detention to await your trial on your asylum process. Until recently, anybody in that category, if they had lots of U.S. citizen relatives and plenty of ID and stuff, they were released on parole, just as someone that faces a criminal charge would be released on bond. It’s normal, and it’s in ICE’s own policy. They have to obey that. 

But as of last year, first they started out by trying to push everyone away from the border, which is totally illegal. The legal way to apply for asylum is to go to the border. Then they tried to sort of break their spirit by keeping them in prison-like conditions for a year and a half or two years. And those conditions in the detention centers are horrific. 

What started even more recently, though, is, if people decide, “Maybe I don’t want to go that route. I’ll swim the river,” it’s extremely dangerous. You have to pay a huge fee for crossing the river, to the cartels. And if they don’t like you or think you’d be a good trafficking person, you could go down. Children drown all the time crossing the river, and adults and children die all the time crossing the desert here, trying to get out of southern Texas. If none of that happens, they’re probably going to get caught. It’s hard to run with kids. And what you’ve been seeing in the paper is happening: They take your children away, prosecute you for trying to save your kid’s life, and send you home without your kid. 

Now, they’re telling them to sit on the bridge. It’s a hundred degrees out. There was a young 15-year-old girl, who was 7 months pregnant, out there for three days and three nights. Many small children are on the bridge for up to 10 days at a time at the Reynosa entry. Just going north a little ways, to Miguel Alemán-Roma bridge, it’s more remote, and we didn’t realize people were there. I went to speak with them a few days ago. They had been out there for 16 days in 100-degree heat, camping out. And there was a 3-month-old baby there, who was becoming ill. A kindly Mexican nurse had come forward to assist the child. That’s what’s keeping all of these people alive on the bridge, is all of us. 

Can they go back to Reynosa to use the bathrooms or get dinner or sleep in a little motel? No. Immigrants right now are the number-one target for the cartels in Reynosa. So, anyone deported or anyone obviously coming north, if they see you coming back across the bridge with babies, you will be kidnapped. They have figured out that it’s a great, booming business, in fact, to grab anyone being sent back. And the reason is they know that they will have someone up north who cares about them. They may be totally destitute, but they’ll go find the $10,000. 

Now what we’re seeing is they make them sit on the bridge in the hopes that they’ll just voluntarily go back. But, the last few days, they’ve started telling people, “You’re not allowed on the bridge at all. Go back.” Sending any refugee back to a place of danger, it’s a violation of international law, which I’m sure President Trump doesn’t care about at all. But it’s also a violation of U.S. law, and it has been for many years. We’re breaking the law. We’re ignoring the cartels. And we’re punishing the hell out of the victims. How that makes us great, I couldn’t tell you. 

AMY GOODMAN: That was Jennifer Harbury, human rights lawyer, who’s lived in the Rio Grande Valley for over 40 years, interviewed by Democracy Now!'s Renée Feltz. When we come back, we'll look at Trump administration’s reported plans to build tent cities on military bases near the U.S.-Mexico border to accommodate the increasing numbers of migrant children being held. Stay with us. 

 

 

Publication Date: June 18 de 2018
Source: https://www.democracynow.org