By Chelle Lee The “zero tolerance” policy under the Trump administration was a policy that resulted in the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. The policy was implemented in April 2018 and was officially halted in June 2018, but the effects of the policy are still being felt today. The father, Ever and the family had been living in Honduras when they decided to flee to the United States due to the increasing threats from the infamous gang, M-13. The violence and drug peddling by the gang was becoming ever more atrocious. After a direct encounter with and the taunts by the gang members, they decided to make the perilous journey north, traveling on foot, by bus and unavoidably the freight train—La Bestia, the beast. The name comes from the fact that people would get thrown off the train if they could not pay for the extortion made by the gang members on the train. Ever and his wife decided to make the journey north as two respective groups: Ever carried their three year-old son, Sammy, while Ever’s wife would take their six month-old daughter with an aim to reunite once they reached the U.S. When they arrived at the Mexico-Texas border along with a river of migrants, they were apprehended by Border Patrol agents as the father, Ever Reyes Mejía, turned the family in, seeking asylum. However, Ever was unknowingly separated from his then three-year old son, Sammy, when he was asked to leave the cell unit to sign some paperwork, where he was placed with his son at a detention center in Texas. “Every moment I was thinking of God to return my son,“ Ever recalled of his time separated from his son. “I felt like I was dying” While Ever Reyes Mejía was being moved around to various locations, Sammy was transported to a foster care agency more than 1000 miles away in Michigan, Bethany Christian Services, which housed more than 50 separated immigrant children under the U.S. policy of separation at the border.
Several months later, thanks to the tireless efforts and work of lawyers and activists, the long-awaited reunification for the Reyes- Mejía family finally came after a federal judge in California ordered that all children under the age of 5 separated from their parents under the "zero tolerance” immigration policy be first reunified with their parents. On the reunification day at the Houston airport, instead of running into the arms of his mother, Sammy refused to look his mother in the eye, he pulled away from her embrace, as she tried to hold him, saying, “I’m your mommy.” As Sammy crawled away aimlessly, she turned to her husband, asking, “What happened? The experience had not only taken a toll on the family but left them traumatized till this day. “There is no greater threat to a child’s emotional well-being than being separated from a primary caregiver,” Johanna Bick, a psychology professor at the University of Houston, told The New York Times. “Even if it was for a short period, for a child, that’s an eternity.” The family was amongst the first prioritized for reunification, for Sammy was under the age of five. Hundreds of families, however, still remained separated under the cruel policy, enduring the unbearable separation from their loved ones. Recently, a major settlement was announced on Oct. 16 by the ACLU(American Civil Liberties Union) representing thousands of traumatized children and parents regarding the years-long legal battle against the Zero-Tolerance Policy. Though the reparation will be made for the distressed families, the ordeal will take years or even a lifetime to recover. The separation of the families marked one of the most petrifying and high-profile issues of the Trump-era. The Reyes Mejía family’s story is just one of many stories of the human cost of the policy. Through the eyes of the family, perhaps we can all ask ourselves, “In a humanitarian policy what is more important than a human being?” a
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May 2024
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