[h=1]
Immigration attorney says 19-year-old Honduran mother was told she would be separated from newborn[/h] Over the weekend, Border Patrol agents waited outside the woman’s hospital room and removed the phone from her bedside so she could not call family or a lawyer, Salazar said Monday.
Family members frantically called attorneys with Al Otro Lado, a pro-migrant legal services nonprofit, over the weekend claiming Border Patrol agents told the mother they planned to place her newborn child in the custody of Child Protective Services and then return her to Mexico without her baby.
Other sources from within the hospital were also communicating with the
San Diego Union-Tribune that Border Patrol agents said they planned to separate the mother and the newborn baby.
. . . . “On Saturday evening, Al Otro Lado received a call asking for help in the potential separation of a 19-year-old asylum-seeker from her newborn U.S. citizen child,” Pinheiro said. “Although our attorneys arrived at the hospital on Sunday morning, CBP did not allow us to communicate with her until Monday afternoon, at which point she confirmed an agent had threatened her with separation.
“I am grateful to the journalists who showed up to cover this story, and believe that the resulting public outcry helped secure her release. No person should be detained without access to counsel or be separated from their child without due process,” she added.
