20180629KD_Meybelin8.jpg

separated at the border, El Salvador

Arnovis Guidos Portillo had been receiving threats from gang members in his hometown in Corral de Mulas the past couple of months so on May 18, 2018, together with his 6-year old daughter Meybelin, they fled El Salvador hoping to seek asylum in the United States. He paid $2000 for smugglers to take them to the border in McAllen, Texas where they surrendered themselves to border patrol agents. He was then separated from his daughter and was charged with a misdemeanor of illegal entry. Portillo is one of the thousands fleeing gang violence in El Salvador only to run smack into Trump’s “zero-tolerance policy”. He arrived at the Migration Center in San Salvador not knowing where Meybelin was on June 23, 2018. “All I hear is my daughter, crying. All I can see is her face when they took her – she was terrified,” he said. Father and daughter were reunited in El Salvador on June 28, 2018, after a month-long separation.


Story published here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/24/all-i-hear-is-my-daughter-crying-salvadoran-father-yearns-to-see-his-child-again