Que Pasa Mi Gente: “The capture of the mother and the two children is the first confirmed detention as part of the raids against Central American mothers with children”
In January, the Obama Administration began targeting recently arrived Central American teenagers for deportation. Despite an outcry from the community and increasing reports of violence in the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras — recent reports indicate that the Administration has begun their latest wave of raids in North Carolina. ICE arrests this past week show how the administration is targeting women and children who fled violence in their home countries for deportation. Maritza Alejandra Alcántara and her children, Elkin and Génesis, were detained in the early morning in the parking lot of their apartment complex, while 18 year old Luis Alfredo Chicaj Orozco was detained yesterday morning.
According to reports from local Spanish language newspaper Que Pasa Mi Gente, Maritza and her children came to the United States in 2014 after fleeing violence in Honduras. Per Que Pasa (English translation):
“I am extremely upset,” said Orlando Ruíz, the husband of Alcántara, who expressed great sorrow over the separation of his family.
Alcántara, 36 years old, arrived to the United States via the Mexican border, from the city of Reynosa, in June of 2014.
“My sister-in-law was held hostage in Mexico for three weeks,” according to Alda Patton, the sister of Ruiz. “It was a very difficult time for us.”
The Alcántara family is originally from the Honduran town of Saba, in the district of Colón.
Ruiz is a construction worker, and Alcántara had been cleaning houses for a living.
Elkin, seven years old, was in the first grade at Winterfield Elementary School, while Génesis, three years old, had not yet started school.
Que Pasa Mi Gente also reports that Luis Alfredo Chicaj Orozco had been working to send money back to his terminally ill mother in Guatemala.
Tim Eakins, Director of North Carolina’s Voice said, “By continuing these enforcement actions, the Obama Administration is making a cruel calculation and using the lives of those like Maritza and Luis to send a message to others planning to leave the Northern Triangle. In aggressively moving forward with these deportation cases, DHS is not only ignoring its own November 2014 deportation priorities memo, but common sense and humanity as well.”
