More details have emerged about the true story behind the viral image of the 2-year-old Honduran girl crying while standing next to her mother and a U.S. border patrol agent. While the photograph has been widely circulated as the defining image of the administration’s separation of illegal immigrant families —Time Magazine even going so far as to include the girl on its cover with Donald Trump callously staring down at her — the real story behind the moving picture is the perfect example of why the U.S. must tighten up its handling of illegal immigration.
Not only were the little girl and her mother not separated from each other by immigration officials, according to the husband, his wife had taken their daughter against his will to America for better economic opportunities. In the process, she left three other children behind, their father forced to try to explain why their mom abandoned them. But it gets worse: He says she also paid $6,000 to a coyote, a human trafficker, to get them into the country.
And that’s not all. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the woman was deported in 2013. Here’s the statement ICE provided BuzzFeed about the little girl’s “previously deported” mother:
On June 12, 2018, Sandra Maria Sanchez, 32, a previously deported woman from Honduras illegally re-entered the United States. She was arrested by agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Border Patrol near Hidalgo, Texas, while traveling with a family member. On June 17, 2018, Sanchez was transferred to ICE custody, and is currently housed at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. Her immigration proceedings are ongoing
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