Separated by Jacob Soboroff

Separated by Jacob Soboroff

Author:Jacob Soboroff
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-05-19T16:00:00+00:00


May 15, 2018

Nearly three thousand miles from Washington, D.C., Juan and his fourteen-year-old son, José, hadn’t heard anything about the separation of migrant families at the border of the United States and Mexico. Juan had previously and successfully crossed undetected twice over the last decade, each time returning to his family in Petén, Guatemala, after years working to provide for them.

Since he received threats to himself and his son a month earlier, he had planned how they would leave home and, with the help of smugglers, make their way to the U.S.–Mexico border. Now the time had come.

The father and son had only slightly less information about the policy than I did, despite the fact I had asked the secretary of homeland security about it to her face six days earlier.

On this day, Juan readied to leave his now-pregnant wife and two daughters behind. Juan packed up José, closed their store, and left their home for the final time, en route to the only place they believed they would be safe and be able to send relief for their family.

Juan’s birthday would be the fifth day of their journey, but any celebration would have to wait until they reached Arizona, a farther and less direct route to the United States than attempting to enter in South Texas. Arizona is where Juan had crossed before, and there he believed they would have the best chance of crossing together.

The day after they left, a warning was sent from the place Juan and José were headed, but they had no way of receiving it. Debra Thomas, a field specialist in the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Western Region of Arizona, alerted other field specialists across the country: be on the lookout for separated children that end up in the care and custody of ORR.

Hello,

I need to clarify a few additional items that have once again changed in a short time as well as address how we will work on these cases. Please review, and ask any questions you have, and please notify your staff who needs this information.

Finding separated parents:

It is very important to locate the separated parent for all UAC in your program.

For parents in ICE custody, you should be able to locate them and have a phone call with that parent as soon as possible.



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