A New York immigration attorney representing three young children who were separated from their mother at the U.S.-Mexico border says even though they've been in New York for a month, the federal government still has them listed in Arizona.
"They're not even part of a system," said Jose Xavier Orochena, speaking with WNYC's immigration reporter Beth Fertig. "I called immigration court here in New York and I asked when are the children scheduled to go in front of an immigration judge. They told me that their system reflects that the children are still in Arizona."
Orochena has been in contact with the children's aunt who is in North Carolina. She's trying to get custody of the kids and is working to comply with a "laundry list" of requirements, including background checks Orochena said.
"If she's able to comply with all of these requirements they will release [them]," he said. The kids — aged 10, eight and five — are three of more than 200 receiving services at Cayuga Centers in East Harlem. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio toured the foster care center Wednesday.
They traveled with their mother, Yeni Gonzalez-Garcia, from Guatemala, and crossed over the border illegally a month ago before they were apprehended by border patrol. Gonzalez-Garcia asked for asylum fleeing violence in Guatemala. She wasn't prosecuted for illegal entry but she was still separated from her three kids, according to Orochena.
She is being held in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention Center in Arizona, Orochena said.
"I think that the only possibility of reuniting Yeni Gonzalez-Garcia with her three children is she gets bonded out, comes to New York, and picks up her children and fights her asylum case outside of the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement," he said.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement and Cayuga Centers didn't return requests for comment immediately.
Updated 6/27: Due to an editing error, Yeni Gonzalez-Garcia’s name was mistakenly changed to Yeni Rodriguez. Her full name on the legal documents used by her lawyer is Yeni Maricela Gonzalez-Garcia de Garcia.