After spending two years, they say, stranded on the Mexican border awaiting asylum in the United States, Blanca Urrutia and her husband, Jonathan Gutiérrez, could not hold out any longer.
In January, they decided to cross the Rio Grande illegally with their two children, between the Mexican state of Coahuila and Texas, although she was about to give birth to her third baby.
The Border Patrol detained them on the other side, they say, and it was then, already locked up in immigration facilities, when Urrutia gave birth.
An official birth certificate certifies that little Jonathan was born on January 18 in the United States, which guarantees him the
right to citizenship
.
Two days later, the entire family was deported to Mexico.
It was the same day that the president, Joe Biden, took office.
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Now the couple and their three children are in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, waiting to find out if they will be able to cross the border again, but this time legally.
The young immigrant, of Honduran nationality, told Noticias Telemundo about her experience crossing the border
pregnant and with two
4 and 2-year-old children: “I was scared, but we crossed over there, to the other side.
Then the border police grabbed us. "
Her husband, who is Nicaraguan, added that he remembers that "the water was very cold."
[More and more migrants and unaccompanied children cross the border: some are released, others deported]
Urrutia said that border agents initially did not believe that her baby was about to be born, even though she was in labor for more than an hour.
"When they looked at me with the baby's head outside, they already took me to the hospital," said the mother.
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Both explained that they are disappointed to see that, while they waited two years for the resolution of their case on the Mexican side of the border, many recently arrived immigrant families are released by the US authorities after crossing into Texas, after Mexico seized. refuse to accept more families with children or children alone.
"One cannot come last and pass first if we last two years here," says Gutiérrez.
The US authorities began to adopt this measure because several detention centers for undocumented immigrants no longer have the capacity to receive more people, according to what immigration officials suggested.
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And while those who have had this possibility celebrates with "happiness" the possibility of being released, those who are still in Matamoros regret that they suffer unbearable conditions, according to Noticias Telemundo Edgar Muñoz.
"We are very sick, wanting to cry," said Josué, a young migrant who did not want to give his last name.
Blanca Urrutia's hope is that the new Democratic Administration will give her an opportunity to achieve a better life in the United States: “I ask the authorities and the president to help us so that we can enter through the bridge and no longer through the River".
With information from Noticias Telemundo reporters Maricruz Gutiérrez and Edgar Muñoz.
