Immigrant parents happy but traumatized after kids returned
Hermelindo Che Coc, of Guatemala, kneels as Father Tom Carey, left, Rev. David Farley and Rev. Matthias Peterson-Brandt, right, pray over him before a required check-in with immigration enforcement authorities on Tuesday, July 10, 2018 in Los Angeles. Che Coc says his 6-year-old son feared he was dead after U.S. authorities separated the pair on the U.S.-Mexico border after they crossed into Texas in May. He says authorities told him he would be detained and his son was sent to a shelter in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
Cosijopii Mendoza, 6, of Bridgeport, Conn., holds a drawing of an immigrant mother and child at an immigration rally outside the federal courthouse in Bridgeport, Conn. on Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Lawyers for two immigrant children detained in Connecticut after being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order that the girl and boy be reunited with their families. (Brian A. Pounds /Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)
Yale student Larissa Martinez, 21, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, holds a banner at an immigration rally outside the federal courthouse in Bridgeport, Conn. on Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Lawyers for two immigrant children detained in Connecticut after being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order that the girl and boy be reunited with their families. (Brian A. Pounds/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)
Vanesa Suarez, of New Haven, Conn., of the group Unidad Latina en Accion, leads an immigration rally outside the Federal Courthouse in Bridgeport, Conn. on Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Lawyers for two immigrant children detained in Connecticut after being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order that the girl and boy be reunited with their families. (Brian A. Pounds/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)
Hannah Schoen, a law student with the Workers and Immigrants Rights Advocacy Clinic at Yale, speaks to the media after an emergency federal immigration hearing in front of the United States Court House in Bridgeport, Conn., on Wednesday, June 11, 2018. Lawyers for two immigrant children detained in Connecticut after being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order that the girl and boy be reunited with their families. (Christian Abraham/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)
A police officer stands outside the Cayuga Centers offices Harlem, Wednesday, July 11, 2018, in New York. Attorney Michael Avenatti has an appointment to see two Honduran girls shipped to New York after being separated from their parents at the Mexican border. The girls’ parents are being detained in Texas by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Immigrant families leave a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility after they were reunited, Wednesday, July 11, 2018, in San Antonio. Some immigrant toddlers are back with their parents, but others remained in government custody away from relatives as federal officials fell short of meeting a court-ordered deadline to reunite dozens of youngsters forcibly separated from their families at the border. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Fourteen-year-old Hermelindo Juarez, second from left, looks around at his home country, Tuesday, July 10, 2018, as he and his father, Deivin Juarez, left, step off a chartered flight from the U.S. in Guatemala City, Guatemala, after the two were deported. They and 11 other families who were separated by the Trump administration were returned to Guatemala. (AP Photo/Colleen Long)
Hermelindo Che Coc, of Guatemala, holds back tears prior to a required check-in with immigration enforcement authorities in Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 10, 2018. Che Coc says his 6-year-old son feared he was dead after U.S. authorities separated the pair on the U.S.-Mexico border after they crossed into Texas in May. He says authorities told him he would be detained and his son was sent to a shelter in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
Families separated under President Donald Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy return home to Guatemala City, Guatemala, Tuesday, July 10, 2018, after being deported from the United States. After lining up on the tarmac, they headed to a processing center where they were screened and given identification before being released back into the country. (AP Photo/Colleen Long)
Three-year-old Jose Jr., from Honduras, is helped by representative of the Southern Poverty Law Center as he is reunited with his father Tuesday, July 10, 2018, in Phoenix. Lugging little backpacks, smiling immigrant children were scooped up into their parents’ arms Tuesday as the Trump administration scrambled to meet a court-ordered deadline to reunite dozens of youngsters forcibly separated from their families at the border. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
CORRECTS SON’S AGE TO 4, NOT 3 - Roger Ardino 24, gives his son Roger Ardino Jr., 4, a kiss on the cheek shortly after speaking to reporters at a news conference at the Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Ardino and Pablo Ortiz, 28, and his son Andres spoke to the media about their experiences while being detained and separated for several months from their sons. Tuesday night three fathers were reunited with their children but only two spoke this morning after the third, a father and daughter had already left El Paso early Wednesday morning. (Ruben R. Ramirez/The El Paso Times via AP)
CORRECTS SON’S AGE TO 4, NOT 3 - Roger Ardino, 24, and his son Roger Ardino Jr., 4, pose for a photo as they and Pablo Ortiz, 28, left, and his son Andres were speaking to members of the media during a news conference at the Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Ardino and Pablo Ortiz and his son Andres spoke to the media about their experiences while being detained and separated for several months from their sons. Tuesday night three fathers were reunited with their children but only two spoke this morning after the third, a father and daughter, had already left El Paso early Wednesday morning. (Ruben R. Ramirez/The El Paso Times via AP)
Pablo Ortiz, 28, with his son Andres, 3, speaks to reporters shortly after a news conference at the Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Ardino and Pablo Ortiz, 28, and his son Andres 3, spoke to the media about their experiences while being detained and separated for several months from their sons. Tuesday night three fathers were reunited with their children but only two spoke this morning after the third, a father and daughter, had already left El Paso early Wednesday morning. (Ruben R. Ramirez/The El Paso Times via AP)
Jose and his 3-year-old son Jose Jr., from Honduras, share a moment after they were reunited Tuesday, July 10, 2018, in Phoenix. Lugging little backpacks, smiling immigrant children were scooped up into their parents’ arms Tuesday as the Trump administration scrambled to meet a court-ordered deadline to reunite dozens of youngsters forcibly separated from their families at the border. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Hermelindo Che Coc, of Guatemala, kneels as Father Tom Carey, left, Rev. David Farley and Rev. Matthias Peterson-Brandt, right, pray over him before a required check-in with immigration enforcement authorities on Tuesday, July 10, 2018 in Los Angeles. Che Coc says his 6-year-old son feared he was dead after U.S. authorities separated the pair on the U.S.-Mexico border after they crossed into Texas in May. He says authorities told him he would be detained and his son was sent to a shelter in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
Hermelindo Che Coc, of Guatemala, kneels as Father Tom Carey, left, Rev. David Farley and Rev. Matthias Peterson-Brandt, right, pray over him before a required check-in with immigration enforcement authorities on Tuesday, July 10, 2018 in Los Angeles. Che Coc says his 6-year-old son feared he was dead after U.S. authorities separated the pair on the U.S.-Mexico border after they crossed into Texas in May. He says authorities told him he would be detained and his son was sent to a shelter in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
Cosijopii Mendoza, 6, of Bridgeport, Conn., holds a drawing of an immigrant mother and child at an immigration rally outside the federal courthouse in Bridgeport, Conn. on Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Lawyers for two immigrant children detained in Connecticut after being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order that the girl and boy be reunited with their families. (Brian A. Pounds /Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)
Cosijopii Mendoza, 6, of Bridgeport, Conn., holds a drawing of an immigrant mother and child at an immigration rally outside the federal courthouse in Bridgeport, Conn. on Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Lawyers for two immigrant children detained in Connecticut after being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order that the girl and boy be reunited with their families. (Brian A. Pounds /Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)
Yale student Larissa Martinez, 21, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, holds a banner at an immigration rally outside the federal courthouse in Bridgeport, Conn. on Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Lawyers for two immigrant children detained in Connecticut after being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order that the girl and boy be reunited with their families. (Brian A. Pounds/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)
Yale student Larissa Martinez, 21, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, holds a banner at an immigration rally outside the federal courthouse in Bridgeport, Conn. on Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Lawyers for two immigrant children detained in Connecticut after being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order that the girl and boy be reunited with their families. (Brian A. Pounds/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)
Vanesa Suarez, of New Haven, Conn., of the group Unidad Latina en Accion, leads an immigration rally outside the Federal Courthouse in Bridgeport, Conn. on Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Lawyers for two immigrant children detained in Connecticut after being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order that the girl and boy be reunited with their families. (Brian A. Pounds/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)
Vanesa Suarez, of New Haven, Conn., of the group Unidad Latina en Accion, leads an immigration rally outside the Federal Courthouse in Bridgeport, Conn. on Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Lawyers for two immigrant children detained in Connecticut after being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order that the girl and boy be reunited with their families. (Brian A. Pounds/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)
Hannah Schoen, a law student with the Workers and Immigrants Rights Advocacy Clinic at Yale, speaks to the media after an emergency federal immigration hearing in front of the United States Court House in Bridgeport, Conn., on Wednesday, June 11, 2018. Lawyers for two immigrant children detained in Connecticut after being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order that the girl and boy be reunited with their families. (Christian Abraham/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)
Hannah Schoen, a law student with the Workers and Immigrants Rights Advocacy Clinic at Yale, speaks to the media after an emergency federal immigration hearing in front of the United States Court House in Bridgeport, Conn., on Wednesday, June 11, 2018. Lawyers for two immigrant children detained in Connecticut after being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order that the girl and boy be reunited with their families. (Christian Abraham/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)
A police officer stands outside the Cayuga Centers offices Harlem, Wednesday, July 11, 2018, in New York. Attorney Michael Avenatti has an appointment to see two Honduran girls shipped to New York after being separated from their parents at the Mexican border. The girls’ parents are being detained in Texas by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
A police officer stands outside the Cayuga Centers offices Harlem, Wednesday, July 11, 2018, in New York. Attorney Michael Avenatti has an appointment to see two Honduran girls shipped to New York after being separated from their parents at the Mexican border. The girls’ parents are being detained in Texas by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Immigrant families leave a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility after they were reunited, Wednesday, July 11, 2018, in San Antonio. Some immigrant toddlers are back with their parents, but others remained in government custody away from relatives as federal officials fell short of meeting a court-ordered deadline to reunite dozens of youngsters forcibly separated from their families at the border. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Immigrant families leave a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility after they were reunited, Wednesday, July 11, 2018, in San Antonio. Some immigrant toddlers are back with their parents, but others remained in government custody away from relatives as federal officials fell short of meeting a court-ordered deadline to reunite dozens of youngsters forcibly separated from their families at the border. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Fourteen-year-old Hermelindo Juarez, second from left, looks around at his home country, Tuesday, July 10, 2018, as he and his father, Deivin Juarez, left, step off a chartered flight from the U.S. in Guatemala City, Guatemala, after the two were deported. They and 11 other families who were separated by the Trump administration were returned to Guatemala. (AP Photo/Colleen Long)
Fourteen-year-old Hermelindo Juarez, second from left, looks around at his home country, Tuesday, July 10, 2018, as he and his father, Deivin Juarez, left, step off a chartered flight from the U.S. in Guatemala City, Guatemala, after the two were deported. They and 11 other families who were separated by the Trump administration were returned to Guatemala. (AP Photo/Colleen Long)
Hermelindo Che Coc, of Guatemala, holds back tears prior to a required check-in with immigration enforcement authorities in Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 10, 2018. Che Coc says his 6-year-old son feared he was dead after U.S. authorities separated the pair on the U.S.-Mexico border after they crossed into Texas in May. He says authorities told him he would be detained and his son was sent to a shelter in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
Hermelindo Che Coc, of Guatemala, holds back tears prior to a required check-in with immigration enforcement authorities in Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 10, 2018. Che Coc says his 6-year-old son feared he was dead after U.S. authorities separated the pair on the U.S.-Mexico border after they crossed into Texas in May. He says authorities told him he would be detained and his son was sent to a shelter in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
Families separated under President Donald Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy return home to Guatemala City, Guatemala, Tuesday, July 10, 2018, after being deported from the United States. After lining up on the tarmac, they headed to a processing center where they were screened and given identification before being released back into the country. (AP Photo/Colleen Long)
Families separated under President Donald Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy return home to Guatemala City, Guatemala, Tuesday, July 10, 2018, after being deported from the United States. After lining up on the tarmac, they headed to a processing center where they were screened and given identification before being released back into the country. (AP Photo/Colleen Long)
Three-year-old Jose Jr., from Honduras, is helped by representative of the Southern Poverty Law Center as he is reunited with his father Tuesday, July 10, 2018, in Phoenix. Lugging little backpacks, smiling immigrant children were scooped up into their parents’ arms Tuesday as the Trump administration scrambled to meet a court-ordered deadline to reunite dozens of youngsters forcibly separated from their families at the border. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Three-year-old Jose Jr., from Honduras, is helped by representative of the Southern Poverty Law Center as he is reunited with his father Tuesday, July 10, 2018, in Phoenix. Lugging little backpacks, smiling immigrant children were scooped up into their parents’ arms Tuesday as the Trump administration scrambled to meet a court-ordered deadline to reunite dozens of youngsters forcibly separated from their families at the border. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
CORRECTS SON’S AGE TO 4, NOT 3 - Roger Ardino 24, gives his son Roger Ardino Jr., 4, a kiss on the cheek shortly after speaking to reporters at a news conference at the Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Ardino and Pablo Ortiz, 28, and his son Andres spoke to the media about their experiences while being detained and separated for several months from their sons. Tuesday night three fathers were reunited with their children but only two spoke this morning after the third, a father and daughter had already left El Paso early Wednesday morning. (Ruben R. Ramirez/The El Paso Times via AP)
CORRECTS SON’S AGE TO 4, NOT 3 - Roger Ardino 24, gives his son Roger Ardino Jr., 4, a kiss on the cheek shortly after speaking to reporters at a news conference at the Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Ardino and Pablo Ortiz, 28, and his son Andres spoke to the media about their experiences while being detained and separated for several months from their sons. Tuesday night three fathers were reunited with their children but only two spoke this morning after the third, a father and daughter had already left El Paso early Wednesday morning. (Ruben R. Ramirez/The El Paso Times via AP)
CORRECTS SON’S AGE TO 4, NOT 3 - Roger Ardino, 24, and his son Roger Ardino Jr., 4, pose for a photo as they and Pablo Ortiz, 28, left, and his son Andres were speaking to members of the media during a news conference at the Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Ardino and Pablo Ortiz and his son Andres spoke to the media about their experiences while being detained and separated for several months from their sons. Tuesday night three fathers were reunited with their children but only two spoke this morning after the third, a father and daughter, had already left El Paso early Wednesday morning. (Ruben R. Ramirez/The El Paso Times via AP)
CORRECTS SON’S AGE TO 4, NOT 3 - Roger Ardino, 24, and his son Roger Ardino Jr., 4, pose for a photo as they and Pablo Ortiz, 28, left, and his son Andres were speaking to members of the media during a news conference at the Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Ardino and Pablo Ortiz and his son Andres spoke to the media about their experiences while being detained and separated for several months from their sons. Tuesday night three fathers were reunited with their children but only two spoke this morning after the third, a father and daughter, had already left El Paso early Wednesday morning. (Ruben R. Ramirez/The El Paso Times via AP)
Pablo Ortiz, 28, with his son Andres, 3, speaks to reporters shortly after a news conference at the Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Ardino and Pablo Ortiz, 28, and his son Andres 3, spoke to the media about their experiences while being detained and separated for several months from their sons. Tuesday night three fathers were reunited with their children but only two spoke this morning after the third, a father and daughter, had already left El Paso early Wednesday morning. (Ruben R. Ramirez/The El Paso Times via AP)
Pablo Ortiz, 28, with his son Andres, 3, speaks to reporters shortly after a news conference at the Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Ardino and Pablo Ortiz, 28, and his son Andres 3, spoke to the media about their experiences while being detained and separated for several months from their sons. Tuesday night three fathers were reunited with their children but only two spoke this morning after the third, a father and daughter, had already left El Paso early Wednesday morning. (Ruben R. Ramirez/The El Paso Times via AP)
Jose and his 3-year-old son Jose Jr., from Honduras, share a moment after they were reunited Tuesday, July 10, 2018, in Phoenix. Lugging little backpacks, smiling immigrant children were scooped up into their parents’ arms Tuesday as the Trump administration scrambled to meet a court-ordered deadline to reunite dozens of youngsters forcibly separated from their families at the border. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Jose and his 3-year-old son Jose Jr., from Honduras, share a moment after they were reunited Tuesday, July 10, 2018, in Phoenix. Lugging little backpacks, smiling immigrant children were scooped up into their parents’ arms Tuesday as the Trump administration scrambled to meet a court-ordered deadline to reunite dozens of youngsters forcibly separated from their families at the border. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Immigrant parents who reveled after joyful reunions with their young children spoke Wednesday of the traumatic impact of being separated from their sons and daughters for months after they were taken from them at the U.S. border.
The administration has been scrambling to reunify the families this week to meet the first of two deadlines set by a federal judge in San Diego who ordered thousands of children be given back to their immigrant parents. Scores of children separated from their families were sent to government-contracted shelters or foster care hundreds of miles away from where their parents were detained.
Roger Ardino, from Honduras, was happy to be back with his 4-year-old son, Roger Jr., who sat on his lap and played with the microphones as the father spoke to reporters. The father said he was still shaken by the ordeal he had to go through just to speak to his boy while he was in government custody. The two were separated in February.
He described feeling a pain in his heart and like he couldn’t breathe after his son was taken away. The father held up his wrist and told reporters that after they were separated, he threatened to use a razor on himself if he couldn’t speak to his son.
He spoke Wednesday at Annunciation House, an El Paso, Texas-based shelter, along with another father recently reunited with his child. They arrived there Tuesday.
“I was completely traumatized,” the father said in Spanish. He added later: “Every time I spoke to him, he would start crying. Where are the rights of children? I thought children were supposed to be a priority here in the United States.”
The father said he planned to live with relatives in the United States as his asylum case is processed, which could take years.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many children remain in detention facilities.
Late last month, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego set a 14-day deadline to reunite children under 5 with their parents and a 30-day deadline for older children. He asked the government to return to court Friday to give an update on how many families had been reunited.
In trying to meet the first deadline, the government began with a list of 102 children potentially eligible to be reunited and whittled that to 75 through screening that included DNA testing done by swabbing the inside of the cheek.
Of those 75, Justice Department attorneys told the court the government would guarantee 38 would be back with their parents by the end of Tuesday. They said an additional 17 could also join their parents if DNA results arrived and a criminal background check on a parent was completed. It was not known Wednesday whether that happened.
Government attorneys told Sabraw that the Trump administration would not meet the deadline for 20 other children under 5 because it needed more time to track down parents who have already been deported or released into the U.S.
Sabraw indicated more time would be allowed only in specific cases where the government showed good reasons for a delay.
The administration defended its screening, saying it discovered parents with serious criminal histories, five adults whose DNA tests showed they were not parents of the children they claimed to have, and one case of credible child abuse.
The administration faces a second, bigger deadline — July 26 — to reunite more than 2,000 older children with their families. Immigration attorneys say they already are seeing barriers to those reunifications from a backlog in the processing of fingerprinting of parents to families unable to afford the airfare to fly the child to them — which could run as high as $1,000.
Kay Bellor, vice president for programs at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which provides foster care to migrant children, said she witnessed the reunion Wednesday of a 3-year-old and his father in the Washington, D.C., area. The boy seemed bright and alert, asking his father about wanting to go to school and seeing his mother.
“To me, the overwhelming feeling was this is right that they’re being reunited, but this was so wrong from the very beginning, and it didn’t have to happen this way,” Bellor said. “They should never have been separated in the first place.”
In New York, Javier Garrido Martinez spoke through tears Wednesday as he held his 4-year-old son, who fed a Dorito to his father as he sat on his lap.
The Honduran father and son had been apart for 55 days.
Garrido Martinez said they were “the worst days” of his life.
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Watson reported from San Diego. Merchant reported from Houston. Associated Press writers Deepti Hajela in New York; Roxana Hegeman in Wichita, Kansas; and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar in Washington, contributed to this report.