NYLAG Opposes the Deportation of a Young Honduran Mother and Her Two Sick Children

For Immediate Release  
Contact: bpacheco@nylag.org | c: 917.771.9845

(NEW YORK, NY) January 22, 2020: A 23-year-old mother and her two daughters fled their homeland in Honduras after several threats from a local gang extorting the mother for a “protection fee”. They were taken into custody by ICE at the U.S. border in Texas and are scheduled to be deported to Guatemala. The young mother must decide to either seek refuge there or return back to Honduras. Her six-year-old daughter is reported to have the flu and her one-year-old daughter with a fever. Both children aren’t well enough to make any travels. The New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) Immigrant Protection unit’s Director, Jodi Ziesemer, has issued the following statement:

“Our government is harshly implementing this punishing policy without any exceptions or compassion. All asylum seekers deserve safety. Deporting them to a third, unstable and violent country is a cruel violation of our laws and international obligations but to enforce this policy against sick and suffering babies is unconscionable. The U.S. has a long history of providing protection and justice to those fleeing violent and oppressive regimes and we have saved countless lives and built a strong nation in the process. All of that is undermined by the blind adherence to these heartless policies and we see the starkness of this administration’s departure from our history and the international community in this particular case. It would cost us nothing to show mercy to this family.”