![]() The administration justified the policy by saying migrant parents needed to be separated from their children so they could be prosecuted for entering the U.S. ![]() Amid widespread bipartisan outcry, former President Donald Trump halted the policy in June 2018, days before a federal judge declared the practice unlawful and ordered officials to reunite separated families. The Arredondo family at their home in Los Angeles.Īs part of its broader effort to deter migration through harsher border enforcement policies, the Trump administration in 20 separated thousands of migrant parents from their children. In some ways, however, the family's story illustrates a rare outcome for one of the families at the center of the Trump administration's most infamous border policy. They don't have to worry about being displaced again and sent back to where things were so dangerous for them," Dakin-Grimm added. Linda Dakin-Grimm, an attorney for the law firm Milbank who represented the family in court, said the decision will also offer Arredondo's daughters, Keyli, 21, Andrea, now 16, and Alison, 10, a chance to restart their lives. ![]() While she said she will never forget Marco's death, Cleivi Jerez, Arredondo's wife, noted the asylum grant has given the family some solace. "It's going to help us in many ways, but one of them is the stability of being able to stay here legally, knowing we can give our children a better future," said Arredondo, who works six days a week in a grocery store. citizens, just like Arredondo's baby son, Keyler, who was born in Los Angeles in July 2021. After several years, they will be eligible to become U.S. The tight-knit family, now living in a modest home in south Los Angeles, will be able to apply for permanent residency, also known as a green card, next year. "In sum, the Respondents' persecutors," the judge wrote in her decision, "viewed the neighborhood watch as anathema to their goals." The gang members, aided by corrupt local authorities, targeted the family because of their political opinion, the judge determined. With the help of his attorney, Arredondo was able to show that gang members killed his son and threatened his family because they were part of a neighborhood watch that patrolled a working-class community outside Guatemala City to combat extortion and assaults by the notorious 18th Street gang. immigration courts deny 80% of asylum requests from Guatemalan applicants, according to federal data compiled by researchers at Syracuse University. It's a high legal threshold that most Central Americans fail to satisfy. ![]() law, migrants have to prove they could be persecuted if deported because of their race, nationality, religion, political opinion or membership in a particular social group to qualify for asylum. permanently was an odds-defying culmination to a dizzying years-long journey that began with his son's tragic death and included separations, months in detention, a debilitating deportation and an unlikely return to America. 22, 2020.įor Arredondo, being given the rare chance to live in the U.S. Fernando Arredondo of Guatemala reunites with his daughters at Los Angeles International Airport after being separated during the Trump administration's separation of immigrant families, Wednesday, Jan. ![]() The Biden administration did not appeal the decision. In December, a federal immigration judge in Los Angeles granted the family asylum after finding they could be harmed by the same gang members who killed Arredondo's 17-year-old son, Marco, in 2017. in early 2020, and his emotional reunion with his wife and daughters made headlines around the world. And thanks to God, we were able to achieve what we dreamed about the most."Ī court order allowed Arredondo to return to the U.S. "But everything that is good comes at a cost. "I don't wish that on anyone," Arredondo told CBS News in Spanish, referring to his time in U.S. ![]()
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