By Marielena Castellanos
After a firestorm of criticism, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end the policy forcing the separation of children from their parents when entering the United States border without proper documentation.
The executive order does not end the zero tolerance policy, which means anyone caught entering the U.S. illegally will still be criminally prosecuted.
Despite this, the fear that families may not be reunited remains as well as confusion on how the reunification process between parents and their children will work and when it will begin. There is no established system to return children to their parents, and both are separated into completely different federal departments.
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Migrants Still Waiting to Cross Border
By Marielena Castellanos
On a cold afternoon under a cloudy sky outside el Barretal, the main migrant shelter in southeastern Tijuana, an older couple, Rosalba and her husband Walter (who requested his name be changed) stand together watching a group of migrants pick out donated clothes from a dark grey truck with California plates.
Rosalba, with dark circles under her eyes and a solemn tone of voice, sounds as if she is speaking of someone else when she explains why she and her husband joined the caravan “So many things that happen to us in life, maybe one thinks about improving them, but at the end of it all, I don’t know what the final result will be.”
By Marielena Castellanos
Opposition to plans for a temporary encampment for immigrants without documentation at Camp Pendleton was strong at a community forum in Fallbrook held last Saturday.
Ricardo Favela, a spokesperson for the Fallbrook Human Rights Committee and one of the organizers of the community forum, said when he first heard the news about the potential encampments back in June, he found it “alarming.”
“Because first of all, we are talking about refugees which include people that have the right to ask for asylum. They are not committing a crime. It’s their right. There is no reason why there should be these centers of detention,” Favela said.
Mario A. Cortez | La Prensa San Diego
At this time last year, Francisco Peralta Vargas recalls he didn’t know what would happen to his life.
“Forget it, when they tell you from night to day to say goodbye to everything you have planned, say goodbye to your work permit, goodbye to your job, you can no longer have a stable job anymore, you can’t pay your rent, you can’t pay your bills,” Vargas said.
Vargas, a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, had just come back to San Diego after celebrating a friend’s wedding in Perris, California, when the news broke President Trump intended to rescind the program.