Andy is six years old. Serious, dark eyes. He is wearing jeans, a sweatshirt and black sneakers. He wears a backpack and a crucifix around his neck. At the airport MiamiHe goes hand in hand with a teenager he doesn’t know to a country he doesn’t know either: Guatemala.
He and six other children are in the process of leaving the United States to settle with his family in the Central American country. They are between three and 15 years old and their lives They just turned around because of politics Mass deportations by Donald Trump’s administration.
Three of them are Americans, the rest are Guatemalans, but They all grew up in Florida..
For Andy and most of the protagonists in this story, the turning point came after a while simple controls Traffic.
Until November, the Florida-born and therefore American boy lived with his father Adiner in Lake Worth in the southeast of the state. He hasn’t had any contact with his mother for years.
One day, Adiner had just picked Andy up from school when a police officer stopped his car. After verifying that he did not have a visa or legal residency, The agent arrested the 28-year-old Guatemalan.
The children have just arrived at the terminal. Mariana Blanco, operations manager at the Guatemala Maya Center, checks to see if they have a change of clothes and something to eat in their backpacks.
The Lake Worth association has reunited about 20 minors with their relatives in Guatemala in recent months since the wave of arrests of undocumented immigrants left her without one or none of her parents.
He helped families – mostly Americans – with paperwork, child care paid for his plane tickets.
Two volunteers, Diego Serrato and Luisa Gutiérrez, will fly with the minors.
“There is racism on the part of the government, it disregards the rights of children,” complains Serrato. “It’s sad I see their faces full of uncertaintywith fear instead of smiles.”
Waiting at his side are Franklin, three years old, and his brother Garibaldi, six years old, the other two Americans in the group.
The smallest one – in a Spiderman sweatshirt and a dinosaur backpack – looks around sad and sleepy eyesand Gutiérrez takes him in his arms to comfort him.
Franklin and Garibaldi make their way to their father, who was deported from Florida just a few weeks ago. The mother, who works in a daycare from morning to evening, cannot take care of the children Fear of being arrested. So he decided to send her with his partner.
Andy will also see his father again. Osvaldo says he’s a little nervous, but also happy. After spending a few days in an internment camp, Adiner was deported from the country where he had lived for more than a decade.
The one who leads Andy by the hand is Areimy, 15 years old. She lived alone with her father until he was arrested and sent to Guatemala. There she meets him and his mother, whom she hasn’t seen for six years.
The others suffered similar situations. There is Alexis, 11 years old, who lived alone with his father and had to stay with an unknown aunt after he was expelled. He now wears a stuffed monkey around his neck that she gave him.
Also Enrique, 13, who will see his mother for the first time in eight years after his father is arrested and sent to Louisiana. And Mariela, 11, who will live with her mother because her father is afraid of being arrested and has decided to send her to Guatemala.
“Nobody should go through thislet alone a child. “It’s a sad, cruel moment,” says Blanco.
For children, Mayan origin, Life in Guatemala will be very different. Their families come from very rural areas where they do not always have access to water, electricity and even less internet.
The older ones will probably have to work, since middle and high school are part of this in Guatemala Expenses that their parents cannot payadds Blanco.
Everyone goes to security check. Before Andy leaves, he lets go of Areimy’s hand and runs to his uncle. He hugs her for a long time. He returns to his partner and follows the others without looking back.
With information and text from AFP
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