Every day, our staff work tirelessly to support immigrant children facing the system by themselves. Here's a short note from Young Center-Harlingen Managing Attorney Mariana Alvarez from our office along the border:
Earlier this year, I had the honor of working with Noeli, 15, and Valeria, 12, two sisters who traveled more than a thousand miles to seek protection in the United States. Their hope was to reunify with their mother, who had been threatened and forced to flee their home in El Salvador. When Noeli and Valeria reached the U.S. border, immigration officials refused to hear their story and ignored their request for help. Worse yet, DHS officials unlawfully “expelled” the girls and sent them to Mexico—a country where they had no family, no community, no safe place to stay. For days, their mother had no idea where her young daughters were. Eventually the girls made their way back to the U.S border. Together, the Young Center and the girls’ mother advocated against a “second expulsion” to Mexico where they’d again be at risk of kidnapping or detention. Because of our advocacy, the girls werenot turned away a second time; instead, they were reunited with their mother. She later shared her family’s story with CBS, hoping that the cruelty of their experience would inspire change so that other children aren’t denied protection and separated from their families under the guise of COVID. I am inspired by her courage and by the incredible resilience and bravery Noeli, Valeria, and thousands of immigrant children exhibit every day.
