Client: 'I came with my son and I’m leaving with my son'
After a 1,500-mile trek from Honduras, Moises and his 6-year-old son, Carlos, crossed the border together in May.
Immigration officials stopped them near McAllen, Texas. After only a few hours together in custody, immigration officials took the boy without warning to a separate area and placed him in a cage. Moises was handcuffed and taken away, too.
They never had a chance to say goodbye.
Moises is among the thousands of parents separated from their children as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) carries out its “zero tolerance” policy for border crossers. (We’ve changed the names of this father and son here to protect their identities.)
I met Moises this week on the other side of a glass partition, in a small meeting room at Stewart Detention Center in the tiny town of Lumpkin, Georgia, some 1,000 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. It’s one of the remote places where we’re representing those who have no other champions.
