TRUMP IS SEPARATING IMMIGRANT FAMILIES AGAIN. HERE’S WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT.
As I write this, our 19-year-old client Soofia is locked up by herself in a remote detention facility in Southeast Texas. Before I go any further, I want to confirm that she’s given us consent to share her story — an act of tremendous bravery amidst dire and unforgiving circumstances.
Soofia and her family arrived in the U.S. this February after fleeing violence and abuse in Iran. Together, they dreamed of finding a safe place to land and build a new life.
Instead, they were apprehended by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) upon entering the U.S. After weeks apart, they were reunited at a detention center in Karnes County, Texas, run by a private prison company, where Soofia took care of her ailing mother and brothers — until Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released them. The family can pursue their immigration case freed from the cold confines of immigration prison. Except for Soofia. She remains alone in government custody with deportation orders. Because she’s over 18, it’s at ICE’s discretion to consider her part of the family unit or to treat her case as independent. If she’d been just a bit younger, she might have been released with her relatives — an arbitrary marker of who deserves the chance to survive. As we’ve seen time and again, cruelty is the essence of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, leaving us limited in our options when we fight for equity and humanity under the law.
