A migrant mother saw her 無能にするd son walk into the U.S. Then he disappeared
By Mimi Dwyer, Kristina Cooke and Sofia Menchu
LOS ANGELES/PETEN, Guatemala, Sept 10 (Reuters) - On Aug. 24, after waiting for five months in the violent Mexican 国境 city of Ciudad Juarez for a U.S. 亡命 審理，公聴会, Elida, a Guatemalan migrant, decided to send her 無能にするd 12-year-old son Gustavo into the 部隊d 明言する／公表するs alone.
Elida 恐れるd for Gustavo's safety in Mexico, after a stranger tried to take him from her, she said. She had been told by other migrants that as an unaccompanied child Gustavo would be 拘留するd by U.S. 移民／移住 スパイ／執行官s and then 解放（する）d to his grandfather who lives in South Carolina.
She took him to a park 近づく the 橋（渡しをする） connecting Ciudad Juarez to the Texan city of El Paso, gave him his birth 証明書, tucked 捨てるs of papers with family phone numbers into his 着せる／賦与するs, hugged him goodbye and then watched him walk into the 部隊d 明言する／公表するs.
The same day, Gustavo's family says his grandfather got a call with what they thought was good news - the boy was in the 部隊d 明言する／公表するs and 当局 手配中の，お尋ね者 the family's 演説（する）／住所.
Then, Gustavo 効果的に 消えるd. No その上の word （機の）カム about his どの辺に.
Elida, 44, who asked to be identified only by her first 指名する for safety 推論する／理由s, was already racked by 犯罪, feeling that she had abandoned her son. Now, she was panic stricken.
She would not learn about his どの辺に for nearly a week, until a Guatemalan news blog 地位，任命するd on Facebook that Gustavo was in Guatemalan 政府 保護／拘留 and that 公式の／役人s were trying to 位置を示す his parents.
The story of how Gustavo disappeared and then 再現するd in Guatemala is emblematic of what U.S. 移民／移住 権利s 行動主義者s say is an opaque, 大混乱／混沌とした new system that 大統領 Donald Trump's 行政 has 器具／実施するd to 追放する migrants, 含むing unaccompanied children, during the pandemic.
Under an 緊急 health order 問題／発行するd in March, which the Trump 行政 says is necessary to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the 部隊d 明言する／公表するs has expelled thousands of unaccompanied children under the age of 18 without giving them the chance to （人命などを）奪う，主張する 亡命, bypassing long-standing 保護s under U.S. 法律.
As of June, Customs and 国境 保護 (CBP) 人物／姿／数字s 示す some 2,000 minors had been expelled. More 最近の numbers are not 利用できる.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is 告訴するing the 政府 over the 追放s, has said the order goes その上の than anything the Trump 行政 has done to 制限する 接近 to 亡命, leaving "almost no avenue open to 捜し出す 保護."
The U.S. 移民／移住 and Customs 施行 機関 拒絶する／低下するd to give （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） about the circumstances of Gustavo's 事例／患者. ICE requested that Elida 調印する privacy 権利放棄s to 許す the 機関 to talk about her and her son's 事例／患者. After these were 供給するd, they referred questions to CBP, which 拒絶する／低下するd comment on the 明確な／細部s of the 事例／患者.
Matthew Dyman, a CBP 広報担当者, said the 緊急 order 適用するs to everyone, "no 事柄 their disability or age."
While U.S. 公式の／役人s do have discretion, 免除されたing groups of people from the order "敗北・負かすs the whole 目的 and puts everyone at 危険," Dyman said in 返答 to questions from Reuters. Dyman said 供給するing 詳細（に述べる）s about 控除s could be 偉業／利用するd by human smugglers.
As it 準備するs to 飛行機で行く children to their home countries, the 政府 has been 持つ／拘留するing them in hotels with unlicensed 請負業者s to look after them, for days or いつかs weeks, によれば 法廷，裁判所 文書s.
弁護士／代理人／検事s say the children's personal （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） is not 記録，記録的な／記録するd in the usual computer systems, making them almost impossible to 跡をつける.
The nonprofit Kids In Need of 弁護 (KIND) said it has been able to help about 70 children through a patchwork of 私的な 弁護士／代理人／検事s, family members and 支持するs.
"A 減少（する） in the bucket," said Jennifer Podkul, KIND's 副大統領 for 政策 and Advocacy.
The organization said it was aware of some Central American children who had been returned across the 国境 to Mexico alone, and others who had been sent to their home countries without their parents' knowledge. They said they have also received frantic phone calls from parents looking for their children.
U.S. 法律 has long held that children need extra 保護s from trafficking and 開発／利用. Before the March order, unaccompanied children would be moved quickly into short-称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 foster care or 避難所s overseen by the 連邦の Office of 難民 Resettlement (ORR), until they could be 解放（する）d to vetted sponsors, usually family members.
ORR's 網状組織 is operating far below its capacity of 13,600 taxpayer-基金d beds. As of Sept. 3, it was 住宅 1,039 children. Some 159 children in ORR 保護／拘留 had 実験（する）d 肯定的な for the coronavirus as of that date, the 機関 said in a 声明 to Reuters.
A FRANTIC SEARCH
Four days after Gustavo's grandfather received the call from the U.S. 公式の／役人, the family had still heard no その上の word on Gustavo's どの辺に.
Lindsay Toczylowski, who runs the 移民，移住（する） Defenders 法律 中心 in Los Angeles, said she heard about the 事例／患者 from another lawyer and emailed 移民／移住 公式の／役人s to ask where Gustavo was.
She received an email 説 ICE was working on placing Gustavo in a U.S. 避難所. But minutes later, that message was 解任するd and a new one arrived from a different 国外追放 officer. Gustavo had already been expelled to Guatemala, alone.
On Aug. 30, six days after she had said goodbye to her son, Elida saw on Facebook that the Guatemalan 政府 was searching for Gustavo's parents "with 広大な／多数の／重要な 緊急."
Elida was still in Ciudad Juarez, fearful for her safety but also afraid to return home.
'WANTED THE BEST FOR HIM'
Elida and Gustavo left Guatemala after she received death 脅しs に引き続いて a family 論争, she said. Gustavo, who has deformed 四肢s and learning difficulties, had also been attacked by a child （権力などを）行使するing a machete several years ago.
His foot was 削減（する） to the bone and the 傷害 still makes it difficult for him to walk, she said. Apart from the physical deformities he was born with, Gustavo struggles to speak to people outside his 即座の family.
"God made my child that way," she said. "I've always 受託するd him as he is."
Mother and son arrived at the U.S.-Mexico 国境 in February, planning to ask for 亡命. They were sent by U.S. 当局 to Ciudad Juarez under the Migrant 保護 議定書s, a Trump 政策 which sends some 非，不，無-Mexican migrants to Mexico to を待つ their U.S. 移民／移住 法廷，裁判所 審理，公聴会s.
Elida became a fruit 販売人 to earn money to rent a room and buy food. The 近隣 was violent, she said, and she worried about leaving Gustavo during the day. One day when she went to get water, she heard a 射撃 and saw a dead 団体／死体 lying in the street.
On Aug. 22, a man tried to 得る，とらえる Gustavo from her in the street, she said. Reuters could not 独立して 立証する her account, but advocacy group Human 権利s First has 文書d hundreds of kidnappings and attacks on migrants waiting in Mexico for their U.S. 法廷，裁判所 dates.
Two days later, Elida took Gustavo to the 国境. "I felt sad because I'd left him," she said. "But I told myself it was for his good. I've always 手配中の，お尋ね者 the best for him."
It was the first time they had been apart since he was born.
On Sept. 5, almost two weeks after he walked across the 国境 alone, Gustavo was 再会させるd with his father Juan in their remote village in the mountains of northeastern Guatemala. The family 再会 was 組織するd by 政府 公式の／役人s.
He stepped off a bus and looked around, disoriented, Reuters 証言，証人／目撃するs said. At first he did not appear to 認める his father, who said softly to him, "Come here my son."
Juan hugged him, crying, and said, "Look how they sent him to me, they 国外追放するd him as if he were grown-up, as if he were a 犯罪の, and he is a child."
Juan called Elida to tell her that Gustavo had arrived. "Talk to your Mom and say hi to her," Juan said to his son, trying to 手渡す him the phone.
Gustavo burst into 涙／ほころびs and 辞退するd to talk to her.
He has not forgiven her for leaving him, Elida said. Then she, alone in Ciudad Juarez, also began to sob. (報告（する）／憶測ing by Mimi Dwyer and Kristina Cooke in Los Angeles and Sofia Menchu in Peten, editing by Ross Colvin and Rosalba O'Brien)
