UPDATE: On July 5, 2018, after nearly two months apart, Gonzalez-Garcia and her daughter were reunited in Boston.
On June 27, 2018, the law firms Demissie & Church and Nixon Peabody, with support from the ACLU of Massachusetts, filed an emergency motion to reunite a mother in Massachusetts and her daughter who were forcibly separated at the southern United States border.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of an eight-year-old Guatemalan child who was separated from her mother at the Mexico-United States border in early May 2018. The mother, who is seeking asylum in Massachusetts, suffered severe abuse and trauma in Guatemala. She has never been separated from her daughter, until immigration officers apprehended them at the border. During their very limited conversations, she has learned that her daughter has injuries and illnesses resulting from her time in immigration detention.
The filing follows a June 26 ACLU victory when a federal judge ordered the reunification of thousands of parents and children forcibly separated by the Trump administration. The court said all children must be reunited within 30 days. The Gonzalez-Garcia v. Sessions filing urges more immediate reunification for Angelica Rebeca Gonzalez-Garcia and her daughter to prevent unnecessary, prolonged suffering as a result of separation.
