Dolores Suy Ramos vividly remembers the day she was separated from her two daughters, Candelaria, 12 years old, and Yashmi Mileydi, 3 years old, by the U.S. authorities. It happened on June 5, 2018 in Dalhart, a small rural town in Northern Texas. "They arrested and jailed me," said the 28-year-old Guatemalan mother, who used to live in the U.S as an undocumented immigrant. "When they deported me a year later, I asked to see my daughters, but they told me I wasn't allowed to."
Dolores used to live in this trailer in Dalhart, Texas. Jean-Cosme Delaloye
This mother’s quest to be reunited with her two children looks like a lost cause. Dolores doesn't know where to search or whom to talk to. She now lives alone in a remote valley in rural Guatemala far from the country’s capital. In this remote region, Internet connection remains a luxury Dolores simply cannot afford. And since Candelaria and Yashmi Mileydi were separated from her, she has never been able to communicate with her two young daughters, who are now living with a foster family in Texas and who could be adopted out .
Dolores’ children are now considered abandoned by their mother in the U.S.. "I never abandoned them and I never signed any document to authorize their adoption", Dolores claimed raising her voice. “I need my daughters and they need the love that only their mom can give them. But I don't know where they are or how they're doing today. "
The children were temporarily housed in this villa in Lubbock, Texas.
“I need my daughters and they need the love that only their mom can give them. But I don’t know where they are or how they’re doing today. ”
Candelaria and Yashmi Mileydi are among the thousands of children separated from their migrant parents by the Trump administration since 2017. The policy was intended to deter illegal immigrants to try to cross the border into the United States. It consisted not only of separating families who were arrested at the border with Mexico. It also did not spare families of undocumented migrants like the family of Dolores who were already living in the United States.
U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive action on February 2 2021 to create a task force, whose goal is to try to reunite these families. But this endeavor will surely prove to be extremely difficult. Dolores is one of hundreds of parents deported to Central America without their children and who are now completely invisible to the Biden administration.
Dolores now lives in this remote valley near Joyabaj in Guatemala. Jean-Cosme Delaloye
Furthermore, the time that that went by since the separations threatens to create another trauma for the children placed with their own family members living in the United States or with foster families. "I'm afraid Candelaria, the older one, now thinks I gave her up," Dolores said. “When the judge sentenced me, he told me that I no longer had custody of my children, but that they would have a good life in the United States. I doubt it, because when she was with me, Candelaria was chubby. In the last picture I saw of her, I found her skinny. "
The story of Dolores was published on February 3, 2021, in the Swiss daily newspaper 24 Heures.
Dolores still has siblings in Texas who are now her only source of information about her children. “The last time I spoke to my younger sister in November, she told me that Candelaria and Yashmi had not been adopted yet, but that's all I know,” she said, sounding anxious.
“Can you help me get my children back?”
In this race against the clock to try to get her daughters back, Dolores learned to accept the silence of the American and Guatemalan authorities in the face of her requests. She even got used to the idea of permanently losing custody of her youngest daughter, who was born in the United States. "Yashmi is a U.S. citizen and I don't think I'll be able to get her back," she said sounding sad. “But Candelaria was born in Guatemala. She therefore has the right to come back here. ” After about 20 minutes, the phone conversation, which kept being interrupted by connection issues, ended with this heart-wrenching question from Dolores: "Can you help me get my children back?"
The original story was published in French on February 3, 2021, in the Swiss daily newspapers 24 Heures and Tribune de Genève.