This week we are sharing stories of families we met at Dilley while volunteering with RAICES. Yesterday we told you about Roberto — a father who complied with every legal requirement and whose children had been released from immigration proceedings entirely. He and all four children are still detained.
Today, Sofia's story.
When Sofia's young son came to join her in the United States, he traveled without her. Because he arrived without a parent, the government placed him in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement — ORR — a federal agency charged with caring for and safely reuniting children with their families. On a Saturday, Sofia picked up her four-year-old son from ORR custody. They went home together.
Two days later, an ORR representative contacted Sofia. She needed to report for a routine check-in — the kind ORR conducts to confirm a child is safe and cared for. Sofia showed up. She was shackled and handcuffed. She and her four-year-old son were put on a plane and sent to Dilley, where the government plans to deport her.
ORR's post-release check-ins exist, officially, to protect children. Under the current administration, they have become something else. Earlier this year, ORR began sharing sponsor information — including immigration status — directly with ICE. A visit framed as a child welfare check became the mechanism for Sofia's arrest, as it has been for many parents.
Sofia has a valid persecution claim. She is Indigenous and speaks very limited Spanish. In none of her interactions with ICE or ORR — not one — has she been provided an interpreter in her language. Her first language is Quiché. She has navigated a system designed to determine her fate without ever being spoken to in her own words.
Her four-year-old son has now been separated from everything familiar to him twice — first in ORR custody alone, now in family detention with his mother. He currently has the measles.
The government used a child welfare check to detain his mother. Then detained the child with her.
Tomorrow, we'll share the story of a mother of four arrested during a traffic stop — shackled and handcuffed in front of her children. Within days, the government separated her from her 18-year-old son, severed their legal cases, and an immigration judge issued a removal order against him in under a week. She is still detained with her 11-year-old. She has serious medical needs. Dilley didn't provide her medication for weeks.
Photo: Eric Gay/AP
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