Border-crossing Guatemalan mom sues Trump after being separated from her 7-year-old son

Daniel Gonzalez | The Republic | azcentral.com

Show Caption Hide Caption Senators call family separation inhumane Lawmakers from both parties are calling family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border inhumane, though they are also accusing each other of politicizing the issue. (June 18)

PHOENIX — A Guatemalan mother who crossed the border illegally in May with her 7-year-old son has sued the Trump administration, accusing officials of forcibly taking away her child as punishment for coming to the U.S. to seek asylum.

In the lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Guatemalan mother, Beata Mariana de Jesus Mejia-Mejia, describes being taken to a holding cell with her son after being apprehended by Border Patrol agents on May 19 near San Luis, Arizona.

The 39-year-old woman told the agents she was escaping severe violence in Guatemala and death threats, including death threats by her husband against her and her son, according to a copy of the lawsuit, first reported by The Daily Mail.

Two days later, men in green uniforms told her they needed to take her son but would not tell her why, the lawsuit says. The boy was "screaming and crying" as the agents took the boy away, even though Mejia told them not to and demanded an explanation, the lawsuit says.

More: Amid public outcry, GOP scrambles to counter Trump policy of separating children from parents

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The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.

Mejia said she was taken to a detention facility in Eloy, Arizona, and was released on June 15 on bond after passing an interview showing "credible fear" of being harmed if she returned to her home country.

Mejia said she only talked to her son once by phone while she was being held at the Eloy detention center, the lawsuit says. During the phone call, she could hear her son saying "Mama, Mama, Mama" in a distressed voice over and over, the lawsuit says.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not comment on pending litigation, a spokeswoman said.

More than four weeks after they were separated, Mejia said she has not been told the exact whereabouts of her son, only that he is being held at a shelter for migrant children somewhere in Phoenix, the lawsuit says.

This appears to be the first lawsuit filed by a parent separated from a child under a zero-tolerance border policy that the Trump administration has staunchly defended as necessary to deter illegal immigration despite an explosion of criticism that the policy is cruel and traumatizes parents and children.

Earlier this month, a federal judge in San Diego allowed to go forward a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union challenging the Trump administration's practice of separating children from parents at the border.

The ACLU lawsuit was filed in February before the zero-tolerance policy was announced in April. It was filed on behalf of a Congolese mother who was separated from her 7-year-old child in November after arriving at the San Ysidro port of entry and asking for asylum, and a Brazilian mother separated from her 14-year-old son after crossing the border illegally.

The lawsuit filed on Tuesday claims the Trump administration violated the Guatemalan woman's constitutional due-process rights to seek asylum by separating her from her son for no "legitimate purpose."

The lawsuit also accuses the Trump administration of using the separation of children from their parents as a bargaining chip to pressure Congress into passing legislation to fund a border wall.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare the separation unlawful and for the Trump administration to reunite the Guatemalan mother with her son, as well as award unspecified punitive damages.