Reunited Families Return to Guatemala

Reunited Families Return to Guatemala

Donelda Pulex stepped off the airplane into the sun, holding her 5-year-old daughter’s hand. She began to cry.

Fourteen-year-old Hermelindo Juarez hid his face as his father held him.

Efildo Daniel Vasquez walked carefully behind his 8-year-old son.

Eleven families that had been detained¹ and separated at the U.S. border returned home to Guatemala. They appeared quiet, unsure and tired.

They flew to Guatemala on a plane rented by the U.S. government. Guatemalan first lady Patricia Marroquin greeted them when the plane landed.

U.S. immigration officials turned the families’ paperwork over to the Guatemalan officials. Then, the families walked together into a wide, gray building on the country’s military base to be processed back into their home country.

Rented planes full of deportees from the United States often arrive in the Central American country. But this flight was among the first to return families separated at the border under President Donald Trump²’s zero-tolerance policy.

More than 2,300 children were separated from their families before an executive³ order ended the separations on June 20.

Although some Central American migrants say they were fleeing their home country to protect their family from violence, the parents who spoke⁴ with the Associated Press said they had made the difficult, dangerous crossing to the United States for a better life. They were hoping to get a good job or provide a better education for their children.

They did not know they would be separated from their children under the policy, which criminally charged anyone caught crossing the border illegally. Trump administration⁵ officials had said the policy was necessary to put an end to a growing number of illegal border crossings. Trump ended the separations following national and international anger.

The parents who spoke with the AP said they were upset that their difficult journeys had ended in failure. But they also said they were happy to no longer be separated from their children.

Donelda Pulex said she was separated from her daughter for two months as she waited in an El Paso, Texas, detention⁶ center.

“It was a great torment⁷,” she said, as tears flowed down her face. “I did not know if I would ever see my daughter again. I thought she was taken from me forever.” Her young daughter, Marelyn said she talked to her mother by phone from a foster⁸ care home in Michigan.

“My mother, she was so sad. She would cry for me, and I would tell her, Mami, everything is OK, I am OK. I will see you soon,” Marelyn said. She said the people who cared for her were kind and treated her well, but she missed her mother.

“I am happy to be back with her,” she said.

Inside the Guatemalan military base, the families were taken into a hot, crowded room. They were given food and water and told to wait for a medical examination⁹. Then came more paperwork.

Finally, each family was given a bus ticket to return home. Some lived in the mountains more than seven hours away.

About 75 people were aboard the flight. The AP asked at least 24 adults if any of their children were still in the United States because they were deported¹⁰ without them. All said no.

There have been other media reports of parents being deported without their children. Elsa Ortiz Enriquez, who is Guatemalan, said that she was deported last month without her 8-year-old, Anthony David Tovar Ortiz. The boy remained in a center for migrant children in Houston, Texas.

Inside the immigration building, Pulex helped Marelyn drink her water. She then pulled the little girl’s hand up to her heart and kissed it.

And Hermelindo Juarez told his father, Deivin Juarez, that he felt very tired. The two made the trip to the U.S. border in early May. They had spent two weeks getting there, with very little food.

“We were starving,” Juarez said.

Hermelindo said he did not know where he was going when he was separated from his father. He also said he and his father were not able to communicate with each other easily during their time apart. The boy was sent to a center in Tucson, Arizona. He said he was treated well there; he studied and played soccer.

“I felt comfortable there,” he said. There were children there from Brazil, from India and Guatemala, he said. He did not know how many had been separated from parents or how many had entered the United States alone.

More than 10,000 children who crossed the border alone are in U.S. government care.

Deivin Juarez and some other parents said they had paid thousands of dollars to smugglers. They said they would not likely try the journey again anytime soon.

I’m Susan Shand.

Words in This Story

deportee – n. someone who is forced to leave a country because he is not a citizen

zero-tolerance – adj. unwilling¹² to accept any dissent¹³

prosecute¹⁴ – v. to hold a trial against a person who is accused of a crime to see if that person is guilty

torment – n. to cause someone to feel extreme physical or mental pain

foster – adj. used to describe a situation in which for a period of time a child lives with and is cared for by people who are not the child's parents

screening – n. an examination from a medical professional

smuggler¹¹ – n. to move someone or something from one country into another illegally and secretly

1 detained   

留住( detain的过去式和过去分词 )； 耽搁； 拘留； 扣留

参考例句：

• One man has been detained for questioning. 一个男人被拘留审问。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group. 他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 executive   

adj.执行的，行政的；n.执行者，行政官，经理

参考例句：

• A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
• He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 administration   

n.经营，管理；行政，行政机关，管理部门

参考例句：

• Who is in charge of the administration of your company?你们公司的行政工作由谁负责？
• The teachers are responsible to the school administration.教师向学校行政负责。

6 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

7 torment   

n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠

参考例句：

• He has never suffered the torment of rejection.他从未经受过遭人拒绝的痛苦。
• Now nothing aggravates me more than when people torment each other.没有什么东西比人们的互相折磨更使我愤怒。

8 foster   

vt.收养，培养，促进；adj.收养的，收养孩子的

参考例句：

• Nowadays young couple sometimes foster.现今年轻夫妇有时领养别人的孩子。
• The captain did his best to foster a sense of unity among the new recruits.队长尽力培养新成员之间的团结精神。

9 examination   

n.考试，考查，试题；检查，调查

参考例句：

• Teachers always judge their students on the final examination.老师常根据期末考试来评价他们的学生。
• He put up a good show in the final examination.他在期末考试中表现得不错。

10 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 smuggler   

n.走私者

参考例句：

• The smuggler is in prison tonight, awaiting extradition to Britain. 这名走私犯今晚在监狱，等待引渡到英国。
• The smuggler was finally obliged to inform against his boss. 那个走私犯最后不得不告发他的首领。

12 unwilling   

adj.不情愿的

参考例句：

• The natives were unwilling to be bent by colonial power.土著居民不愿受殖民势力的摆布。
• His tightfisted employer was unwilling to give him a raise.他那吝啬的雇主不肯给他加薪。

13 dissent   

n./v.不同意，持异议

参考例句：

• It is too late now to make any dissent.现在提出异议太晚了。
• He felt her shoulders gave a wriggle of dissent.他感到她的肩膀因为不同意而动了一下。

14 prosecute   

vt.告发；进行；vi.告发，起诉，作检察官

参考例句：

• I am trying my best to prosecute my duties.我正在尽力履行我的职责。
• Is there enough evidence to prosecute?有没有起诉的足够证据？