DETROIT — Ever Reyes Mejia was talking while his 3-year-old son was playing nearby with toys.
This father says after being separated for three and a half months under the Trump Zero Tolerance policy his son has changed and he’s responding.
“I’ve dedicated myself to showing him love and being with him every minute I can,” he says through an ACLU Attorney interpreting Spanish to English.
Reyes Mejia says they came to the United States through Mexico from Honduras and turned themselves in to authorities in Texas.
He says they were sleeping on the floor and covered with a foil blanket like the ones seen in videos from the Texas holding facilities.
He says guards told him he had to leave and he couldn’t say goodbye to his son. They were reunited on Tuesday.
“I just asked God, prayed to God to give me a miracle and give him back to me. I’ve dedicated myself to showing him love and being with him every minute I can,” speaking inside the ACLU Detroit office.
The ACLU took his case to Federal Court on Thursday, and the Judge ruled Reyes Mejia can stay in the metro Detroit area on supervised release without fear of being deported.
“It’s unjust for them to do this to a child who doesn’t know anything,’ he told 7 Investigator Jim Kiertzner.
He also has a wife and 5-month-old baby in Texas, and they are able to stay in contact on the phone while out on supervised release. Their cases could take weeks to get through the immigration process. They want to start a new life in the US.
As of Tuesday only 58 of 103 kids under 5-years-old were reunited with their parents to meet a court deadline in a national case brought by the ACLU. One of those was in Michigan where the parents were deported.
For kids under 17-years-old, the deadline for them to be reunited is July 26. The total number of children is more than 2,000.
