Lawyer: Parents of about 10 immigrant kids in Michigan were deported

Niraj Warikoo | Detroit Free Press

The parents of about 10 immigrant children brought to Michigan have been deported, some of them without their children, said an immigration attorney.

And there is concern that some of the children who have been reunified with their parents are being housed in detention centers, said Susan Reed, supervising attorney for the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, which legally represents the Michigan children.

About 50 immigrant children separated from their asylum-seeking parents under the new "zero tolerance" immigration policy announced in early May were brought to Michigan, under the care of Bethany Christian Services in Grand Rapids. The children were part of the more than 2,000 separated from parents at the southern border of the United States.

After a lawsuit was filed on behalf of the separated families, a federal judge in California gave the government 30 days and set Thursday as the deadline for the U.S. to reunite all of the children with their parents. But the reunification process has been chaotic at times, said Reed.

One pressing obstacle is that some of the parents have already been deported, said Reed.

So far, 17 separated immigrant children in Michigan have yet to be reunited with their parents, Reed said. Out of those 17, about one-third have had a parent deported, another third have their parents in detention facilities, and one-third have parents who have been released, she said.

Nationally, there may be up to 463 parents of separated children who have been deported without their children, according to a court filing this week by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is overseeing the reunification process.

Some deported parents have made the decision to have their children stay in the U.S. because they feel they would be unable to provide them with a good life in Central America, Reed said.

Many of the immigrants have been fleeing violence in Central America. The vast majority come from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, with some from Eastern Europe, Reed said.

Where are the children now?

A spokesman for Bethany Christian Services, Jeffrey Gaunt, said that "nearly all children who were separated under the 'zero-tolerance' policy in effect from May 7 to June 20" have been reunified. The spokesman did not say how many children were under Bethany's care.

Out of the roughly 33 immigrant kids in Michigan who have been reunified so far, a couple of them were sent to the South Texas Family Residential Center, in Dilley, Texas.

Reed said she is concerned about the experiences of kids in the center.

In one case, "the goal of reunification has been achieved for our client and his mother, but we are grieving the incredible psychological harm an innocent child being sent from foster care to jail must experience," Reed said.

Some out of the 33 kids reunified were deported along with their parents.

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More work to do

The majority of the 33 children in Michigan who have been reunified were reconnected with parents who were released and are currently in the U.S waiting for their asylum cases to proceed through the courts.

Two weeks ago, Ever Reyes Mejia was reconnected with his 3-year-old son who had been separated from him at the southern border in May. Mejia said he and his wife were escaping violence in his native Honduras

More reunifications of the children in Michigan may take place in coming days, said Reed. They will probably take place outside Michigan since many of the kids are being sent to centers outside of Michigan for reunification, such as Port Isabel Detention Center in Texas.

Reed said "we're still working for justice for every family."

Gaunt, the spokesman for Bethany, said that "Bethany continues to work with a small number of children separated before and during 'zero tolerance' whose reunifications have been delayed because of extenuating circumstances. We will continue to seek the reunification of all separated children."

Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com or 313-223-4792. Follow him on Twitter @nwarikoo