Expelled From the U.S., Kidnapped in Mexico and Separated From Her 8-Year-Old Daughter. A Mother's
Journey at the Border
https://www.yahoo.com/news/expelled-u-kidnapped-mexico-separated-202551440.html
Estefani doesn’t know how long she was kept from her daughter. She says that after being kidnapped on the streets of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, in late February, the days started to blur together. Estefani’s 8-year-old daughter Ashly was able to run away while men snatched Estefani off the streets—that much Estefani knew—but while the 27-year-old from El Salvador was held, she didn’t know that Ashly had crossed the border into the U.S., where the government classified her as an unaccompanied minor along with thousands of other children and teens who have been processed into the U.S. since the start of the Biden Administration.
The kidnappers were likely members of organized crime groups, though Estefani says she couldn’t know for sure who they were. She and her lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, say Estefani wouldn’t have been vulnerable to kidnapping in the first place, nor would her daughter have become an unaccompanied minor in the U.S., if not for the U.S.’s Title 42 rule, a Trump-era measure that allows border officials to immediately “expel” anyone who tries to enter the U.S. without authorization or to make a claim for asylum because of the risks posed by COVID-19.
About four months later, on June 10, Estefani and Ashly were finally reunited at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, after Estefani says she was able to escape her kidnappers along with a group of other women. She made contact with her brother in Texas, who she says was relieved to know she was still alive. TIME spoke to Estefani on the condition that her last name be withheld for fear she can be identified by her kidnappers. TIME is also only identifying Ashly by her first name because she is a minor.
Their reunification in the U.S. is a rare one, and was only made possible because the U.S. government granted Estefani a humanitarian exception to Title 42 to allow her to enter the U.S. and reconnect with her daughter and brother, who planned to assume custody of Ashly while Estefani remained missing. While the U.S. government does not keep data on how many unaccompanied minors arrived at the border with a parent or family member, some news media reports have documented cases of parents choosing to send their children into the U.S. alone, knowing family units may be expelled. Reuniting families after a child is classified as unaccompanied in the U.S. while the parent or family member stays in Mexico because of Title 42 can be a challenge, and typically can only happen when the parent has access to an American lawyer.
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