Young Migrant Girl Reunited with Family in Guatemala After Months-Long Separation

[Judi Lynn]

Farida Jhabvala Romero
Published on Aug 7



Filomena, 5, embraces her mom, Marcela, at a shelter in Guatemala City as her brother, Marvin, watches. (Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)


A 5-year-old Guatemalan girl, who spent almost three months in U.S. government custody at a shelter in New York after being separated from her father at the California border, was finally returned to her parents Tuesday in Guatemala City.

Filomena's parents, Nazario and Marcela, hugged their little girl and cried at a child welfare home run by a Guatemalan government agency. Their daughter arrived in the capital on a commercial flight, along with several other children sent home by U.S. immigration authorities. (KQED is not disclosing their last names because the parents are concerned for the family's safety).

"It was very difficult to be separated like that," said Nazario, 32. "I feel happy again to have her with us."

Nazario has been trying to regain custody of Filomena ever since May 12, when, he said, two Border Patrol agents took her from his arms in a San Diego County holding facility. The father and daughter were one of almost 3,000 families separated as a result of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy, announced in April, to prosecute all unauthorized immigrants arrested at the border.

More:
https://www.kqed.org/news/11685525/young-migrant-girl-reunited-with-family-in-guatemala-after-forcible-separation

LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142129093

Bless Filomena and her loved ones, and all poor people without political power.

[Squinch]

1. Can you imagine? Look at the size of that baby, with her little pink sneakers. Repubicans are

so afraid of her they were willing to traumatize her with an experience that will shape the rest of her life.

I really hope there is a hell.