Dear Friend,
Thank you to all who joined in advocating for a 16-year-old girl who came to be known as AMPV. She faced deportation to Honduras, where she had fled physical and sexual violence, and death threats. AMPV applied for protection with her mother at the border and was forced to remain in unsafe conditions in the refugee camp in Matamoros, Mexico for more than four months. Increasingly afraid for her safety in the camp, AMPV eventually came to the border alone. She was placed in government custody and assigned a Young Center Child Advocate. Last month, ignoring the fact that she had an appeal pending, ICE informed us that she would be deported with just two days' notice. Within minutes of our call to action on social media, thousands of our supporters raised their voices, advocating for an immediate halt to AMPV's deportation. You called, emailed, and tweeted, pleading for your representatives to help stop the deportation and demanding a response from ICE. Despite our best efforts, AMPV was taken from the shelter in the middle of the night and deported the following day.
We are writing to thank you for your advocacy and provide an update on what's happened since then.
We’ve been able to stay in touch with AMPV and help her find support. When she landed in Honduras, we worked with a partner organization to arrange transportation so that a family member could meet her and take her to her maternal grandmother's house. With the help of two other partner organizations, AMPV was connected to the mental health resources she may need. Although we remain deeply concerned about her future, we are heartened to know that she's now with her grandmother and we have been working to create a network of support should she find herself in an unsafe situation.
We’re staying in touch with AMPV to support her in any way we can. Before she boarded the ICE flight, AMPV was in the best possible spirits. She spoke with Mariana Alvarez, the Young Center attorney assigned to her case, and expressed her gratitude for our work. She was moved by the fact that so many people were willing to help her. AMPV's grandmother echoed the same sentiment when we spoke with her. She said “a veces se pierde la batalla, pero mientras que la gente siga peleando hay esperanza,” which means "sometimes the battle can't be won, but as long as people keep fighting there is still hope."
Thank you for helping us fight for AMPV. We continue to fight for children facing deportation and thank you for your support.
Maria Woltjen
Executive Director
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