More than three years ago, Bryan Chavez hugged his mother inside a U.S. immigration office, terrified that he would never see her again.
“You are not going to see her anymore,” the female U.S. immigration officer told Chavez, according to his account. Then the officer turned to his mother Sandra Ortiz. “And you will go to prison.”
Mother and son were separated. Chavez went to an immigration facility in California. His mother, who didn’t pass an initial asylum screening, was deported to Mexico.
They were among the earliest family separations during the Trump administration, well before splitting families became publicized U.S. policy. More than a thousand families remain separated, but the long ordeal for Chavez and his mom is finally over.
Read the full story at LATimes.com.