They relate the tragedy of being separated from their children 5:22
(CNN Spanish) - It
was December 25, 2018 and “Nidia” began labor at a hospital in the state of Alabama, in the southern United States.
But she says that, after giving birth, she was separated from her son when the authorities found out about her illegal stay in the country.
We will call this mother "Nidia" to protect her identity.
"Nidia" is an immigrant mother who was separated from her newborn son in the United States during the government of Donald Trump and who was recently reunited with her baby in Guatemala.
«They took him from me as a newborn.
My husband and I didn't see it at all.
They took it from me and they took me to jail, "says" Nidia. "
She and her husband were deported and their baby was left in the care of the US authorities.
"Nidia" is originally from Huehuetenango, about 200 kilometers northwest of Guatemala City.
The landscape is appreciated in the middle of the mountains.
Rivers and huge waterfalls of crystal clear water frame the village where some 800 people reside.
The houses are made of wood and sheet.
They have dirt floors and there are few basic services.
Twelve hours east of Huehuetenango, immersed in the mountains of Ilom, Chajul, lives María Mérida.
Her daughter was also separated from her family in 2018 in the United States.
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The few inhabitants of the village guide the CNN team towards Maria's little house.
The history of the separation of this family is known to many of the residents of the place.
Maria, who is Mayan Ixil and speaks little Spanish, has a smile on her face.
He says he is no longer sad, as he managed to reunite with his daughter a few weeks ago.
When she wasn't there, she wasn't eating.
How I was crying! », Says Maria.
"At night, all day I was crying with (for) her," he says.
The meeting of 'Nidia' and María with their children
Seven people live in the house.
The women in Ilom are dedicated to weaving looms and the men to agriculture, but from what the neighbors comment this is not enough.
María says that her husband decided to migrate to the United States because he couldn't find a job in Guatemala.
His daughter, just four years old, emigrated with him.
María's husband and daughter entered the United States illegally in 2018. María says that a short time later there was a raid by immigration authorities in the neighborhood where they lived, and the little girl was taken to a detention center while her father worked. .
After that raid, both parents lost track of their daughter.
After three months, the authorities in the United States finally contacted María to inform her of her daughter's whereabouts.
They didn't tell me anything.
We just went.
Just because the police called me.
I spoke with the police and we are going to deport the girl, ”says María.
The children of "Nidia" and María returned to Guatemala a few weeks ago accompanied by social workers from the United States.
In Guatemala, they were received by authorities from the Attorney General's Office, Foreign Ministry, Migration, and the Presidential Secretariat for Social Welfare (SBS).
After the medical evaluation, the SBS was in charge of taking them to their villages to reunite them with their families.
CNN contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for details of the cases of these families, but received no response.
Efforts to reunify separated families
Where are the parents of 545 children separated at the border?
5:41
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says that like these cases there are hundreds of families in the same situation.
According to court documents filed by the Department of Justice and the ACLU, the parents of more than 500 children who were separated from their parents between 2017 and 2018 have not been able to be located.
This as part of the efforts of a commission made up of lawyers and pro-migrant organizations that have undertaken the task of reuniting families that were separated by the "zero tolerance" policy of the government of President Donald Trump.
Different organizations have explained that family reunification is difficult because they suspect that the children's parents have been deported to their place of origin.
In many cases, remote areas of Mexico and Central America.
Efforts that are now overshadowed by the covid-19 pandemic.
LEE: A look at the search for the parents of the 545 children separated at the border
“Even before the covid it was difficult to find these families, but we will not stop until we find them all.
Some of these children have been separated from their families for years when they were just babies, ”says Lee Gelernt, an ACLU attorney.
The details of the
"Zero Tolerance" policy
Under the zero tolerance policy, migrant families who tried to cross the border between the United States and Mexico illegally were separated.
The adults were detained to face criminal charges, while the minors were left in the custody of the authorities and were later placed in sponsoring homes.
This is how Trump fulfilled one of his 2016 campaign promises: to introduce stricter immigration policies to mitigate the number of migrants seeking to enter the United States irregularly.
LOOK: The Donald Trump government's tactics to separate immigrant families on the southern border of the United States.
Although this policy did not last long after a federal court ordered the immediate reunification of separated families, the number of parents and children who were separated has not been quantified to date.
And according to experts, it could take several years to repair the psychological and sometimes physical damage caused by these separations.
Campaign promises
On October 22, in the last presidential debate in the United States, President Donald Trump justified these measures, while ensuring that his government is trying to reunify families.
"Children are brought here by coyotes and many bad people, cartels ... they bring them and they used to use them to enter our country," said the president who is seeking re-election in the November 2 elections.
In that same debate, the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, refuted him.
“They were separated from their parents.
And that makes us a mockery and violates any notion of who we are as a nation, "he said.
LOOK: This is what Trump and Biden think about immigration in the US.
Biden's campaign team announced that, if elected president, he will create a special commission dedicated to reuniting families.
But for the Guatemalan government, the position after the election results will remain the same, Foreign Minister Pedro Brolo explained to CNN.
Brolo says that deportations have increased in 2020 and ensures that the priority for the authorities is unaccompanied minors.
The Foreign Minister reported that since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, children and adolescents detained in the United States have been deported almost immediately to Guatemala.
Central America Immigration Zero Tolerance