Johan Bueso Montecinos—the 15-month-old who was separated from his father at the U.S./Mexico border for five months and then had to appear in immigrant court by himself—reportedly took his first step, said his first word, and had his first birthday while under custody of the the U.S. government.
His anguished parents, Rolando Antonio Bueso Castillo and Adalicia Montecinos, learned that their son had started talking from a viral report earlier this month on migrant children appearing in immigration court by themselves. Johan, drinking “milk from a bottle,” had also asked for “agua.”
Johan was appearing there alone because Rolando had already been deported to their home country of Honduras. “Rolando said he had first been told by immigration authorities that the two would be deported together, so he agreed to go,” the AP reported. “Then, they told him his son would follow in two weeks. But months passed.”
Adalicia, “in her first trimester of pregnancy,” had stayed behind to work and had hoped to join them both in the U.S. at a later date. But instead, back in Honduras, the distraught couple “learned he took his first steps from the social worker, who also sent a video of him on his first birthday, waking up and crying.” Johan was finally returned to them last week, but not without obvious trauma. Johan “at first didn’t recognize his mom and dad,” but “his father soon won him over by playing ball.”
Perhaps he’s so young that this trauma may not be long-lasting. But the same cannot be said for the thousands of other separated children who are still waiting to be reunited with their parents. Under Judge Dana Sabraw’s order, all families must be together by July 26. But with just days until that deadline, the administration told him that as of Friday, only 450 out of 2,500 children have been returned.
Some reunited children have bravely spoken out about their time under U.S. custody, with one 9-year-old saying that he “felt like a prisoner.” Another 10-year-old said that he witnessed a boy whose dad had been deported being forcibly drugged, saying that he “was very scared. I thought they were going to inject me, too.” Another child described not being allowed to hug her own sibling even though they were being detained in the same facility.
Mass deportation policies are toxic, with the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners stating that “research clearly shows that traumatic life experiences in childhood, especially those that involve loss of a caregiver or parent, cause lifelong risk for cardiovascular and mental health disease.”
For parents, but especially children, every day separated is another day of trauma, yet the only reason why the administration has reunited any families is because the courts have forced them to—and what’s happening to them in the meantime is criminal. “I will never see my son walk for the first time, or celebrate his first birthday,” Adalicia said. “That’s what I lost—those memories every mom cherishes and tells their children years later.”