美国国家公共电台 NPR Migrant Parents Face Major Obstacles Before They Can Regain Custody Of Their Children

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Forty-five days - that is how long it had been since Guatemalan migrant Yeni Gonzalez saw her children after they were separated at the southwest border. Their reunion today in New York City was emotional. It was also temporary. As NPR's Joel Rose reports, Gonzalez and other migrant parents still face major obstacles before they can regain¹ custody² of their children.

JOEL ROSE, BYLINE³: A week ago, Yeni Gonzalez was in an immigration detention⁴ center in Arizona more than 2,000 miles from her children. Today she stood outside the social services agency in Harlem where she had just seen her kids for the first time in over a month, clutching a blue-and-white lollipop⁵ in her hand.

YENI GONZALEZ: (Through interpreter) I feel very happy because I just saw my children, and my daughter gave me that lollipop.

ROSE: Gonzalez and her children, ages 11, 9 and 6, are seeking asylum⁶ in the U.S. after fleeing violence in Guatemala. They crossed the U.S. border illegally and were apprehended⁷ by the Border Patrol. Gonzalez was held by immigration authorities in Arizona while her kids were sent to New York. She hadn't seen them since May 19.

GONZALEZ: (Through interpreter) The day they took them away from me, I told them I promise that I'm going to fight for you, and I'm going to find you. And when I saw them, I got on my knees, and I hugged them, and I said I promised I would come get you, and I'm here.

ROSE: But the reunion was bittersweet because Gonzalez can't take her children home, at least not yet. A federal judge has ordered the Trump⁸ administration to reunite roughly 2,000 migrant children with their parents before the end of the month. However, advocates say the government is in no hurry to release parents from immigration detention or to help those who are released regain custody of their children.

JOSE OROCHENA: This mother's in Arizona. This child is inside that building.

ROSE: Jose Orochena is Gonzalez's lawyer. He points to pictures of his other clients, a dozen parents who say they were also separated from their children.

OROCHENA: It's so much red tape. I mean, come on. How is it that we can send rocket ships into outer space and we can't reunite families here?

ROSE: That Yeni Gonzalez has made it even this far is remarkable⁹. Dozens of people she'd never met helped drive her across the country from Arizona to New York. The effort to get Gonzalez here started with Julie Schwietert Collazo. She heard about Gonzalez and her children from a story on member station WNYC. In just a few days, Schwietert Collazo raised enough money to pay Gonzalez's bond and get her out of immigration detention.

JULIE SCHWIETERT COLLAZO: I wasn't surprised at all. You don't mess with the kids. You just - they're off limits. But in this administration, they're not off limits. There's nobody off limits.

ROSE: The Trump administration says it wants to stem the tide of asylum-seekers fleeing violence in Central America. It's backed down from separating parents and children. But the administration shows no sign of releasing these families into the U.S. while their asylum claims are pending¹⁰. The administration told a federal judge it intends to hold families in detention for as long as their immigration cases take or deport¹¹ them. Today, Yeni Gonzalez had a message for parents who are still in detention.

GONZALEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

ROSE: "What we went through was not easy," she says. "But there are a lot of people with good hearts who are willing to reunite you with your children." Gonzalez's supporters are already turning their attention to another case and trying to reunite families one at a time. Joel Rose, NPR News, New York.

1 regain   

vt.重新获得，收复，恢复

参考例句：

• He is making a bid to regain his World No.1 ranking.他正为重登世界排名第一位而努力。
• The government is desperate to regain credibility with the public.政府急于重新获取公众的信任。

2 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

5 lollipop   

n.棒棒糖

参考例句：

• The child put out his tongue and licked his lollipop.那孩子伸出舌头舔着棒棒糖。
• I ate popcorn,banana and lollipop.我吃了爆米花、香蕉和棒棒糖。

6 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

7 apprehended   

逮捕，拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 )； 理解

参考例句：

• She apprehended the complicated law very quickly. 她很快理解了复杂的法律。
• The police apprehended the criminal. 警察逮捕了罪犯。

8 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

9 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

10 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

11 deport   

vt.驱逐出境

参考例句：

• We deport aliens who slip across our borders.我们把偷渡入境的外国人驱逐出境。
• More than 240 England football fans are being deported from Italy following riots last night.昨晚的骚乱发生后有240多名英格兰球迷被驱逐出意大利。