Rafael Leyva was only 8 years old when his mother was stabbed with a knife and died in the young boy’s lap.
Soon after that, his brother and sister were sent to live with their uncle in California, while Rafael — or Rafa as his siblings call him — remained the ward of an orphanage in Mexico.
Now, in a tale of rising tensions over immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, Rafa’s uncle is waging an uphill battle to reunite the boy with his older brother and sister at the uncle’s home in Santa Ana.
The problem is that although his siblings were born in the U.S., Rafa was not.
“It wasn’t my choice [to be separated,]” Rafa told The Times through a interpreter. “I didn’t want to separate. My siblings and I lived together forever, and they could cross the border but not me.”
It’s been almost two years since Melanie Leyva, now 13, and her brother Eddy Leyva, 15, last saw Rafa in person. While Melanie and Eddy live with their uncle, Jesus Leyva, 11-year-old Rafa resides in an orphanage in Baja California about 10 miles northwest of Ensenada.
Rafa’s mental and physical state have declined so much that he has begun growing strands of gray hair. Jesus Leyva said in an interview that the children grew up in a world marked by violence and witnessed their father physically abusing their mother.
On the morning of Sept. 28, 2022, at their home in Mexico’s Michoacan state, the parents got into what seemed like just another argument, according to the children and a police report from authorities.
But when the fight turned violent, the mother told her kids to quickly put on their shoes; she had had enough and was finally going to leave their father, according to Jesus Leyva.
Before they could escape, however, the father grabbed a knife and stabbed the mother’s throat in front of them, according to prosecution documents and autopsy reports. She died in Rafa’s lap while his siblings ran for help.
After their father was arrested, the kids lived temporarily with a family friend in Mexico, but they began to show signs of neglect, according to Jesus Leyva. It also wasn’t safe for them there because of the high crime rate in Michoacan.
Because of their birthright citizenship, Eddy and Melanie were able to move in with their uncle in March 2023.
Meanwhile, Rafa had to stay behind in Mexico, where his father was eventually convicted of femicide and sentenced to 23 years in prison, according to court documents.
In April 2023, Jesus Leyva submitted a request on Rafa’s behalf for “humanitarian parole,” which would grant the boy temporary entry to the U.S., according to an application reviewed by The Times.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency under the Department of Homeland Security, grants temporary parole on a discretionary basis to people who may be inadmissible or ineligible to be admitted to the U.S. It grants parole based on “urgent humanitarian or significant public benefit reasons.”
Citing the brutal violence in Michoacan — where Rafa was still living at the time — and the fact that he has no family to take care of him in Mexico, Leyva said he intended to apply for special immigrant juvenile status. If approved, that would give Rafa a green card on the basis of being a child who was abused, abandoned or neglected by a parent.
“Additionally, Rafael’s siblings, Eddy and Melanie, are already living with me and they are attending school,” Leyva wrote. “My wife and I are helping them feel safe, and we are looking for psychological services for both of them. Rafael is the youngest and Eddy and Melanie miss him. The three of them need to be together as soon as possible.”
As the family awaited an answer from the Department of Homeland Security, Rafa was moved to Orfanatorio Estate 29, an orphanage in the town of San Antonio de las Minas near Ensenada.
When Rafa arrived in October 2023, he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, respiratory problems caused by allergies, nightmares and insomnia, according to a psychological evaluation written by his therapist at the orphanage. Rafa also had difficulties breathing and stopped speaking for long periods of time.
In her report, the therapist highlighted the benefits of Rafa moving in with his uncle: better psychological care and support from his family.
“As long as his uncle can provide the necessary security and support, Rafael would benefit from reuniting with his older brother and sister,” the report said. “There could be significant benefits to finding a psychologist based in the U.S. specializing in severe pediatric post-traumatic stress disorder, which is a specialty that’s not available where he currently lives.”
On Feb. 7, 2024 — nearly 10 months after Leyva submitted the application — the Department of Homeland Security informed him that it was denied. The agency wrote that the application failed to “establish humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit” that would justify allowing Rafa to cross the border into the U.S., according to the rejection letter reviewed by The Times.
Melanie and Eddy were devastated by the news, Leyva said. The trauma of losing their parents and being separated from Rafa has been hard on them. Sometimes, they’ll appear happy but then start crying, seemingly out of nowhere.
“What they saw was very traumatic, so it’s very, very difficult,” Leyva said. “Rafa is even worse because [some of] his hair turned gray when he was 10 because of all of the trauma and stress. He lost his ability to speak, and we could barely understand what he was saying.”
A Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson said the agency doesn’t comment on individual immigration cases because of privacy concerns.
Leyva has started trying to adopt Rafa, but it could take up to two years before the boy can move to the U.S. Levya, who works as a locker room attendant at an Orange County country club, must also raise at least $35,000 to cover the cost of the adoption — a feat he’s hoping to achieve through online donations.
An employee who has worked at the Citizenship and Immigration Services for nearly 30 years spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity because she isn’t authorized to speak to media. She said that granting humanitarian parole is based on the discretion of the officer who looks at the application, which means the decision differs from officer to officer.
Because of that, she said, the agency wouldn’t need to provide a specific reason to reject the application.
The employee said that based on the facts of Rafa’s case, she would’ve approved his application.
“I would parole him because it’s based on family reunification,” she said. “He’s a child and he saw his mother get murdered.”
Although Rafa’s application was denied under the Biden administration, the employee said that Trump’s presidency has the potential to make the humanitarian parole process more difficult for others.
Although a more liberal administration may instruct federal employees to interpret “urgent humanitarian reasons” in a more lenient way, the Trump administration could potentially tell employees no such reasons exist, she posited.
Sonja Brown, executive director of Nightlight Christian Adoptions, an adoption agency that has been consulting with Leyva about Rafa’s case, said that adopting a child from Mexico typically takes about two years. First, the U.S. government needs to approve his uncle to adopt a child, and then confirm that there isn’t anyone else who can take care of Rafa in Mexico.
“The child is already living in an orphanage and that is a good place to start because they may have already found he’s eligible to be adopted,” Brown said.
Rafa will have to stay in Mexico during the entire adoption process, and there are steps that need to be followed closely or else the case could get thrown out, Brown said. Rafa’s father will need to relinquish parental rights voluntarily, or they’ll have to be stripped by a judge before the child can be adopted.
“It’s complicated with Mexico in particular and because this is a child, adoption is the best way for them to get the child over legally,” she added.
In early January, Leyva drove to the orphanage to visit Rafa, who was looking much healthier and in better spirits than the last time he saw him.
Rafa is still holding out hope of moving to the U.S. He keeps in touch with his siblings through video calls, he said, but he yearns to be reunited with them physically and permanently.
“We used to play together,” he said. “We lived in a little village and would go to the river almost every day. We were together all the time.”
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