October 25, 2018, Washington, D.C. – A Salvadoran mother whose son was taken from her by U.S. immigration officials at the southern U.S. border seven months ago continues to fight for her right to be with her child. Today, she filed a lawsuit in the federal District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has violated the U.S. Constitution by refusing to allow her and her son to reunite.
The mother, referred to as "Ms. Q" in the case, was erroneously denied reunification in July in the wake of the Trump administration's disastrous "zero-tolerance" policy of prosecuting asylum seekers and taking their children. Last week, a Texas immigration judge refused to acknowledge that the gang-related threats and severe gender violence Ms. Q fled El Salvador to escape warranted asylum protection, but also effectively concluded she is not a danger to the community. While Ms. Q appeals the asylum denial, her wellbeing and that of her son continue to deteriorate as they remain separated. Ms. Q and her son are represented pro bono by attorneys at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP; the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC); and the Center for Constitutional Rights.
"The government took a three-year-old child from his mother's arms seven months ago," said Gibson Dunn attorney Michael Galas, "and has used pretext and confusion in refusing to reunite them ever since. Ms. Q and her son suffer more with each day they remain separated, without any legitimate reason and in violation of the Constitution. We are asking the court to immediately restore what little they have left — their family."
Ms. Q and her son were apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers soon after they entered the United States in March 2018. They were first held at a processing station and then put in wire cages for two days until they were separated. Since then, DHS has detained Ms. Q in two separate immigration jails in Laredo, Texas, while her son has been held in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services at a shelter in Chicago. DHS has deemed Ms. Q "ineligible" to reunify with her son based on an arrest warrant from El Salvador, but has refused to provide any evidence in support of the warrant, including at last week's immigration court hearing. Ms. Q has refuted the allegations with an affidavit from an attorney in El Salvador who reviewed the case against her and found absolutely no evidence of criminal activity or gang affiliation. A judge who reviewed evidence submitted by NIJC in July found she was not a danger to the community but nonetheless declined to give her a bond.
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