U.S. officials literally ripped a child from the arms of an asylum seeker when they were taken into custody at the southern border earlier this year. “I was pulling on my son,” Raul Submacx tearfully recalled, “and the immigration man was pulling on his feet. I said let him go.” He didn’t. They were separated for five months.
“I spent it crying,” Submacx said about being separated from Abner. The two had fled their village in Guatemala, where a gang had begun to threaten their tiny community. “They hit me, they threatened me, they knew where I lived,” he said. “They knew my family.”
With some money from relatives already living in the U.S., Submacx and the boy made their way north, hoping to set down roots in safety. It never happened. The dad said that once they were detained in Arizona, he was made to sign papers he didn’t understand, and was then deported back to Guatemala.
Meanwhile, Abner remained here and the two were unsure when they would ever be reunited again. “When I talked to him, my son said, ‘Dad, the lady where I am said she was going to adopt me,” Submacx said. The two were finally reunited after five months, but only because Abner was sent back to Guatemala as well.
Submacx blamed himself for their trauma and his child’s ongoing nightmares. “I’m sorry, son,” he said he told the boy. “I’m a bad father. Why did I bring you to the United States?” No, Raul, you are a good father, because you made this journey to save his life, and yours. You did it because you love him. Your separation was not your fault; it was ours.
Today, Wednesday, Dec. 19, marks 146 days since a federal judge’s reunification deadline, yet children ripped from families at the border due to “zero tolerance” continue to remain separated. Family separation remains a crisis.