After being separated at border, family reunifications underway during Biden administration – Everett Post

Everett

(NEW YORK) – Sandra Ortiz hugged her son Bryan for the first time in nearly four years on Tuesday. The reunion took place at the same port of entry, San Ysidro, where she was deported and separated from her son.

Later that night, Mabel, a mother from Honduras, surprised her sons Mino and Erick at a family reunion and locked them in a tearful group hug for the first time in over three years.

These families will be among the first to be reunited by organizations working with the Biden Administration Family Reunification Task Force. They are also two of the thousands of families separated under former President Donald Trump’s zero tolerance policy aimed at preventing illegal immigration.

“It feels like a dream. I was in the car – that’s how it finally happens. After all this time, I’ll really be reunited with her, ”said Bryan.

His mother was arrested at the border while fleeing from cartel violence in Mexico. Bryan was originally placed in a state facility but has since lived in California with older siblings.

In many cases, organizations like Al Otro Lado and the Immigrant Defenders Law Center have been working for years to find parents across Mexico and Central America. The Biden White House says the Trump administration left them little to no information on many of the families.

Four families are due to be reunited this week, with more expected in the coming weeks. Lawyers have worked with the Biden government to provide temporary humanitarian protection for the parents. However, the question remains whether they will be granted permanent status.

Mabel, whose last name is being withheld on privacy concerns, spent two years in immigration and customs detention before being returned to Honduras, the country she fled for violence. The Immigrant Advocacy Center in Las Americas helped her reunite them with their sons, who have been living with their grandmother in Philadelphia since their separation.

“I love you,” she said to her sons as relatives hugged and hugged them crying.

As these reunions begin to materialize, the daunting challenge of reuniting the rest of the families torn away at the border, the lawyers who are looking for them, looms. To date, the Biden administration has identified more than 1,000 families that remain segregated.