She and Marelyn were kept together at a border center for the first night, but the next day Ms. Pulex was placed into one vehicle, her daughter into another. That was the last time the two saw each other until last week.

“During my imprisonment, I could only cry,” Ms. Pulex said.

At first, she was told that she would be reunited with her daughter within five days. When that did not happen, she quickly lost faith in any assurances she received and began to believe that she might have seen her daughter for the last time.

Every once in a while, she was able to speak with Marelyn, who had been flown to the foster home in Michigan. Their conversations were brief, and Marelyn said little, adding to Ms. Pulex’s duress.

On June 4, she was urged to sign a document that ensured a quick deportation, scheduled for June 18. The alternative would have been to fight her deportation in the courts, but the authorities told her that she could well be imprisoned until her case was decided, which could take many months, with no chance of seeing Marelyn.

“I said, ‘I’ll die or whatever, but I’m not leaving without my daughter,’” she recalled.

At the same time, their relatives in Guatemala were struggling to figure out how to help. Mr. Pulex called everyone he could: the Guatemalan government, the detention center in El Paso where Ms. Pulex was being held, Marelyn’s social worker in Michigan.

“I felt guilty and impotent, because there’s little that you can do,” Mr. Pulex said.

Everyone in the family back in Santa Rosa de Lima was particularly concerned about Marelyn.