John, I’ve been thinking a lot about the asylum seekers I’ve met at the border and the parents and children I represent in their asylum cases who were cruelly separated, especially today on International Migrants Day. One of these families was Ivette and her toddler son. Ivette was forcibly separated from her three-year-old son at the border. After suffering years of severe violence and abuse in El Salvador, including beatings and death threats by a powerful street gang, Ivette and her son fled to save their lives. But they did not find the safety they were looking for in the United States. Instead, they were detained and separated for eight months. Ivette and her son were finally freed and reunited last December after months of advocacy by the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) and pro bono attorneys from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. When Ivette saw her son again, she was overcome with emotion and said, “I was crying. I had felt an emptiness in my heart. But once I was finally with him, everything changed.” | |
While both Ivette and her son still struggle every day with the trauma of separation they experienced, Ivette has since become an advocate herself. She has told her story on NPR and in front of more than 1,000 people at NIJC’s Human Rights Awards. And with remarkable courage, Ivette testified before the Illinois General Assembly about being locked up in a private detention center and separated from her son, and her testimony was pivotal to passing the Illinois law banning private detention centers this year. Right now, NIJC is representing and fighting to reunite more parents whom U.S. immigration officials separated from their children. We sued the U.S. government on behalf of separated asylum-seeking mothers and their children, seeking monetary compensation for the extraordinary trauma they continue to experience. Today, on International Migrants Day, you can help free and reunite families whom the U.S. government cruelly separated, and honor the extraordinary strength and resilience of asylum seekers like Ivette: https://immigrantjustice.org/donate Providing legal representation, getting individuals released from jail, and reuniting families takes an incredible amount of resources. Your support reunites families and gives them a chance to begin new, safe lives in the United States. Make an investment in family unity and a safe and stable future for a family fleeing persecution: https://immigrantjustice.org/donate | |
Thank you for welcoming and defending those seeking safety in the United States. -Lisa Koop
Associate director of legal services and director of NIJC's asylum project | |
