HOUSTON – When officials pulled them out of a detention center near the U. S. -Mexico border and on a bus last month, Honduras’ 12-year-old boy and 9-year-old sister thought they were going to shelter, so they may be reunited with their mother in the Midwest.
They were asked to point to a document that they said would tell the shelter that they had no coronavirus, the child said. The English form, a language he and his sister don’t speak.
Instead, the bus drove five hours to an airport where young people were invited to board a plane.
“They lied to us, ” he said. They didn’t tell us we were going back to Honduras. “
More than 2,000 unaccompanied youth have been deported since March on an emergency declaration issued through the Trump administration, which cited coronavirus through a referral to provide coverage under federal anti-trafficking and asylum laws. Lawyers and advocates have strongly criticized the management of the global pandemic as a pretext for deporting young people to harmful places.
No U. S. agent saw the video the boy had recorded on his mobile phone showing a guy hooded with a gun, saying his call and threatening to kill him and his sister, weeks after the guy who cared for them shot him dead in June. although they were deported under an emergency statement mentioning the virus, they were never tested for COVID-19, the child said.
Three weeks after their uncle’s death, the youth fled Honduras, crossing the U. S. -Mexico border alone; as part of the general procedure established by U. S. law, they would have been referred to a government youth center and placed with their mother. They were deported on July 24 after three days of detention in the United States and now live in Honduras with some other uncle.