Fundraising effort launched for 11-year-old girl ordered deported without family

Laura Maradiaga,11, becomes emotional as her family talk about her possible deportation back to El Salvador Thursday, April 11, 2019, in Houston. Laura Maradiaga,11, becomes emotional as her family talk about her possible deportation back to El Salvador Thursday, April 11, 2019, in Houston. Photo: Steve Gonzales, Staff Photographer Photo: Steve Gonzales, Staff Photographer Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Fundraising effort launched for 11-year-old girl ordered deported without family 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

Dora Alvarado felt something was off when she arrived at immigration court in Houston March 12 with her two daughters. A court translator told her that she and her 15-year-old, Adamaris Alvarado, were listed on the docket that day. Her 11-year-old, Laura Maradiaga, was not.

Days later, Alvarado received a letter in English — a language she cannot speak or read — bearing Laura’s name. It wasn’t until the trio returned to court this week that a different translator told her the letter was the 11-year-old’s removal order.

“I don’t want to leave my mom,” Laura said Thursday. “I want to stay with her.”

UPDATE: Motion to be filed to set aside 11-year-old’s deportation

At a news conference Thursday led by FIEL, a local immigration advocacy group, the family’s lawyer, Silvia Mintz, said she will file a motion to re-open the case. Mintz said immigration officials were at fault for the girl’s missed court appearance, which led to her deportation order.

They launched a Go Fund Me Saturday to help the family.

The family entered through the southern border in early October, telling U.S. government officials that they feared returning to their native El Salvador. They were released to pursue their asylum case in the backlogged civil immigration courts, and since then have complied with court orders and appearance dates.

They are part of a record number of Central American parents and children fleeing poverty and gang violence who have arrived in recent months — more than 57,200 in March alone — even as the Trump administration has tried to curtail access to asylum to deter more from coming. The government has overturned a provision allowing those fleeing gang and domestic violence to qualify for the protection and made it more difficult for immigration judges to close cases on their own, exacerbating a backlog of more than 800,000 cases that was further jeopardized by the month-long government shutdown earlier this year.

The administration has also tried to ban those crossing illegally from seeking asylum and force others to wait in Mexico while their asylum cases proceed through the courts, though federal judges have blocked both the latter measures.

Mintz blamed the Executive Office for Immigration Review, a branch of the Justice Department overseeing immigration courts, for the error resulting in the 11-year-old’s deportation.

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“This mistake done by the immigration court has put this family in jeopardy,” Mintz said. “They will be separated if this is not stopped.”

In a statement, the office said, "EOIR records show that on March 12, 2019 an immigration judge issued an Order of Removal for Respondent Laura Elizabeth Maradiaga-Alvarado."

The official order states that Laura is subject to deportation because she was not present for the March 12 court appearance. Whether the court translator available that day provided incorrect information, or the girl’s case fell through the cracks, is unclear.

Generally speaking, Laura’s attorney has about 30 days from the order’s date to try to re-open the case, said Ruby L. Powers, a Houston immigration lawyer. Powers noted that the immigration courts system has become chaotic; some clients have been given incorrect court dates, Powers said, while others have experienced clerical errors that led to serious consequences like deportation orders.

It is not uncommon for child migrants to be deported alone, but this typically happens when they arrive on their own rather than with their parents, other legal experts note.

Maradiaga’s fate, should she be deported without her family, could be dire.

Her home in a rural area of El Salvador’s La Paz region became a death trap when a relative testified against a local gang member, Alvarado said. Uncles, nephews, classmates and others have been kidnapped or murdered in retaliation, she added. At the news conference, she held up a photo of a young girl, a neighbor, left for dead on a dirt road close to her home.

Alvarado, who lived through El Salvador’s civil war in the 1980s, said the country was safer then.

“The gangs don’t play by the rules of war,” she said. “It’s just violence for the sake of violence.”

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Trump policy of returning asylum-seekers to Mexico upends lives before judge’s order

Late last year, Adamaris Alvarado told her mother that a gang member had been harassing her and threatened to kill the rest of her family if she spoke about it.

“That’s when mom told us we were going to the United States,” Laura said.

As the family pursued its case, a February court date was rescheduled to March 12 due to the government shutdown.

Alvarado said she trusted the court translator when she told her everything was going to be all right with Laura. But the removal order says otherwise.

Thanks to Alvarado’s elder daughter, who told her school counselor about the deportation threat, the family contacted FIEL and Mintz, who will represent Laura without a fee.

Houston Police chief Art Acevedo tweeted: "This is heart-wrenching. 1,000 points of light? Family values? Ameican values? Judeo-Christian values? If you're a person of faith, speak out. WWJD?"

While her future remains uncertain, Laura is doing her best to live out her days in what she calls an unfamiliar yet beautiful new country. She takes comfort in studying her multiplication tables, in sharing a bed with her mom and older sister, and in caring for Lalo, the scruffy dog her mother and aunt got her when she arrived.

At her southwest Houston apartment complex, Laura said she still misses the friends she left behind. These friends, living in the same dangerous environment, would come to her home to study or walk with her to buy snacks at a corner store.

“I want to be a police officer when I grow up,” she said. “I want to keep people safe from the bad guys.”

ileana.najarro@chron.com

twitter.com/IleanaNajarro

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