Immigrant father hopes for reunification with separated 3-year-old son "This is the cruelest thing anyone could have done," father said of being separated from his son, age 3

Niraj Warikoo | Detroit Free Press

Sleeping on the floor of a cell alongside his 3-year-old son in a Texas detention center, Ever Reyes Mejia, 30, was awakened one day in early May by security guards. He was told to leave the cell for processing.

That was the last time the immigrant from Honduras saw his son.

Immigration agents and U.S. officials soon transferred the boy more than 1,000 miles north to Michigan, where he was placed in the care of Bethany Christian Services, a foster care agency based in Grand Rapids.

"This is the cruelest thing anyone could have done," Mejia later told his attorney.

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Now, Mejia is hoping he will soon be reunited with his son, one of more than 50 separated immigrant children who were taken to Michigan over the past two months after the U.S. started separating immigrant children from their parents at the Southern border.

On Tuesday — the day a federal judge ruled that all separated children under the age of 5 should be reunited with their parents — Mejia may get to reconnect with his son, said his attorney, Abril Valdes of ACLU Michigan.

"After he was processed" that day in early May, "he never saw his child again," Valdes said. "He hasn't seen him in 3 months."

A spokeswoman for Bethany Christian Services did not tell the Free Press where, or if, the reunification may take place on Tuesday. It also did not comment on Mejia's son.

Mejia was one of three immigrant fathers from Central America who were transferred this weekend from out of state to Calhoun County jail in Battle Creek, said Susan Reed, supervising attorney with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. They all have children under the age of 5 years old, who were brought to Michigan.

Bethany Christian Services has said it has more than 50 separated immigrant kids in its care, a result of President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy which led to U.S. authorities separating about 3,000 kids from their asylum-seeking parents or caregivers.

Reed met with two of the fathers this weekend.

"We're certainly hoping they and the kids will be released," Reed said. "We are working diligently for reunification for every one of these families."

Mejia and his family were facing increasing threats from violent gangs, such as MS-13, said Valdes. Mejia and his son left Honduras in April for the Texas border with Mexico. His wife and another child, a 5-month-old baby, left a few days later. They are currently in detention in Texas.

Mejia made it to a bridge on April 28 near the border with Texas, and then voluntarily surrendered to federal immigration authorities, Valdes said. He and his son were processed in a federal immigration center in McAllen, Texas, which houses many of the separated immigrant children.

The split with his son has been hard for him and his son. The boy's mother has tried to communicate with her son by phone, but "the little boy won't talk, won't say anything to her," Valdes said, recalling what Mejia told her. "He thinks his parents have abandoned him. He's just distraught."

Mejia "told me, 'This is the cruelest thing anyone could have done.' He feels like he wants to apologize to his son. He fears his son is traumatized."

Valdes, the ACLU attorney, is representing another immigrant from Honduras who also has a son in the care of Bethany Christian Services.

Bethany officials have said they are committed to the reunification of the children in their care, but has not commented on individual cases or allowed journalists inside its center.

Valdes said she's concerned about the future of the children who were separated from their parents. "The psychological trauma that the children are being put through is going to be permanent," she said.

"They (the parents) have tried to speak to him on the phone, but the kid has gone through so much trauma, he's not really talking," Valdes said. "He's only 3 years old. He's kind of in shell shock."

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