Reunion of tears after mother sees daughter photo at US border – WJET / WFXP / YourErie.com
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Austin, Texas (AP) – It’s been six years since Glenda Valdez said goodbye to his toddler and left for the United States. It’s been six years since she held Emely in her arms.
But here she was crying and hugging the girl she’d left at Austin Bergstrom International Airport in Texas. It happened because she was looking at Emery’s photo on TV. This is part of an Associated Press article about a young man crossing the Mexican border alone.
“I love you,” whispered in her 9-year-old daughter’s ear in Spanish. “Thank you God”
It was a fairytale ending to a complex story that began in Honduras and began with an unhappy relationship, according to 26-year-old Valdes.
According to her, Emery’s father was absent and not feeding her. When Valdes emigrated in search of a better life, the girl was taken into care by Valdes’ mother. However, Emery’s father has recovered it.
Valdez said contact with her daughter was sporadic. Valdez received video calls frequently. Eventually, Emery told her that she had a new stepmother who wasn’t nice.
Emery told her that she saw her dissatisfaction with her family life and decided to kick her out without telling her where her father was. He looked after her as an adult and spent several weeks helping her travel to the US-Mexico border.
Around midnight, as the day changed to May 13, border guards met Emery in La Joya, Texas. She walked in the bush with strangers for six hours and lost her shoes in the mud. She sobbed uncontrollably.
“I was thirsty, I had nothing to drink, I didn’t want to drink, I didn’t know where to go,” said Emery in Spanish on Sunday.
When the agent found her, she said she had lost her mother’s number and didn’t even know where she lived. Desperate, she told reporters details that could identify her mother. And she has a lip ring. “
Her mother was waiting for her, she said. But Valdes said on Sunday that she did not know her child was being sent across the border.
Valdes was watching a Univision newscast at his Austin home that afternoon in May and saw a picture of Emery in a red hoodie. She soon realized that it was her daughter. Desperate, she immediately called US authorities, networks and refugee organizations.
“To be honest, I was shocked. Imagine watching TV and suddenly seeing your daughter, ”said Valdes. “And when I saw her cry, everything she said shattered my heart. To be honest with what she said, upset and crying, and seeing her barefoot, everything was very difficult for me. “
Emery said she was moved to a residential group. But Valdes did not know that, and for weeks she said she had only vague answers to her request for information. Please be patient, she was told.
“I was just traumatized, like crying for days, watching her video, looking at her pictures, crying, crying, crying and spending days,” said Valdes. Told.
I got a call from her last Wednesday. Emery was in a state animal shelter. You will meet again soon. And on Saturday she was told to meet her daughter at the airport the next day. At the appointed time, she ran down the stairs of the crowded arrival terminal and gave her a hug.
Emery is part of a sharp surge in the number of children traveling alone from Mexico to the United States, which reached about 19,000 (a record high) in March and about 17,200 in April (second highest). I am. Every third unaccompanied child comes from Honduras on the border, followed by Guatemala.
The US Department of Health aims to put unaccompanied children in a “less restrictive environment” that is possible on federal law and decades of court settlements. UNITED STATES. It took the children an average of 35 days to get home at the end of May. Emery was 10 days less reunited with her mother.
Children are usually released when the judge is ordered to appear before the immigration tribunal, which decides on the asylum application. The decision can take years – the court system has 1.3 million pending cases.
While Emery waited for a court date, the girl moved with Valdes, her husband, and two daughters. You’re excited to meet this new sister who you’ve only met virtually so far.
And to Valdes’ great satisfaction, she meets again with the girl who said goodbye six years ago.
“Well the plan is that God wants to be here with her,” said Valdes.
“Don’t let yourself be separated. Ask God never to be separated. To give her all the love that I couldn’t give her. Everything that is missing. I can. Give her everything and take her to school. She has a better future to improve on what happened. “
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Acacia Coronado is a member of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a not-for-profit national utility that assigns journalists to local media to cover unreported issues.
Goodbye to tears after mom sees daughter’s photo at the U.S. border – WJET / WFXP / YourErie.com
Source link reunion of tears after mother sees daughter’s photo at the U.S. border – WJET / WFXP / YourErie.com
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