After separating immigrant families, Border agents tell anxious parents that they only way to get their children back is to agree to immediately leave the country and they’ll reunite them at the plane.
Take the case of Carlos (not his real name) a man from Honduras who was separated from his six-year-old daughter and told he needed to sign a voluntary deportation paper in order to see his young child.
‘We only came because we can’t live in our country. We are looking for somewhere to live where our children can have a better future.,’ he said, echoing the feeling of most immigrants.
He said that it took him 10 days to travel from Honduras to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Like many families looking to make a better life for their children, Carlos said he paid a smuggler $7,000 in order to make the journey and fleed because he was afraid for his life.
Carlos said that he was told his daughter would be taken to an aunt in California, but this was ‘pure lies,’ he said.
‘She’s a prisoner,’ he said.
‘She can’t talk, she cries because she’s locked up.’
‘The kids aren’t to blame for what’s going on,’ he added.