Heidy Sánchez was so distraught that she got on the rooftop of a house in Havana to get Wi-Fi connection and send her daughter a bedtime lullaby via WhatsApp.
The Tampa-area mother was deported to Cuba last week without her 17-month-old U.S.-citizen daughter, who has a history of seizures and was still being breastfed, she and her lawyers told NBC News.
“My daughter tells me over the phone, ‘Come, mama.’ And when she cries, she just keeps saying, ‘Mama, mama, mama.’ It’s overwhelming … I can’t even sleep at night,” Sánchez said by phone from Havana.
Sánchez’s case illustrates the stepped-up pace of deportations of immigrants who don’t have criminal charges or convictions, even though President Donald Trump said during his election campaign the focus would be on deporting violent criminals.
Sánchez’s deportation occurred around the time two other mothers were deported to Honduras with their U.S. citizen children, including one with stage 4 cancer. In those two cases, attorneys have said the mothers wanted their children to stay in the U.S. but were not allowed to make the arrangements.
In the case of Sánchez, she said everything happened very fast. “They never gave me the option to take my daughter,” said Sánchez. Her attorneys said the same.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment on the case, but the administration has said in previous comments that deported parents have been given the choice to take their children or not.
Sánchez said her daughter starting having seizures three months ago and is seeing a neurologist in the Tampa area. Her daughter’s bedtime routine consisted of breastfeeding, lullabies and then sleeping together in bed.
Now her daughter just cries, Sánchez and her husband, Carlos Valle, said in separate interviews. Valle, who’s a naturalized U.S. citizen, remains in Tampa with their child.
Sánchez was scheduled to check in at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Tampa on April 30, but her appointment was bumped up, her Miami-based attorney, Claudia Cañizares, said.
Sánchez went to the appointment with her daughter and Cañizares’ associate in Tampa, while Valle, Sanchez’s husband, waited outside because he was not allowed in the room.
At the appointment Sánchez was informed she was being detained and she needed to arrange for someone to pick up her child. According to Sánchez and the attorneys, Sánchez started crying, saying she couldn’t leave her baby. The officers told her the child could visit her in Cuba.
The child was handed to the attorney who was in the room and she carried her outside to her father. According to the attorneys, the officers didn’t let Sánchez say goodbye to her husband or give the baby to him. When Valle asked if he could say goodbye, they told him no and said he had to leave.
Valle said he does his best to console his daughter. He has reached out to members of Congress seeking help to bring Sánchez home.
Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla. sent a letter to Trump, which was shared with NBC News, asking for the return of Sánchez to the U.S.
Valle will meet with Castor’s office on Friday.
The office of Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., responded with a letter, viewed by NBC News, which stated that “our office is unable to assist you in this legal matter” and suggested Valle speak with a private attorney.
Cañizares said she was given the “run-around” when she found out Sánchez had been detained on Tuesday and was working to file a stay of removal on humanitarian grounds so she wouldn’t be deported.
“It’s very taxing and very overwhelming,” Cañizares said, adding she couldn’t contact Sánchez or confirm her exact whereabouts. She said when her firm went to file documents on Thursday she was told Sánchez had already been removed from the country, though she thinks she was still there and deported later.
“It’s very scary because we have rule of law, and as an attorney I have to abide by those rules,” said Cañizares. “But if the government is not abiding by those rules, then what can I do?
Sánchez applied for U.S. asylum in 2019 during Trump’s first administration. Under his “Migrant Protection Protocols,” asylum-seekers had to wait in Mexico for their hearings in U.S. immigration court.
Sánchez said she missed her scheduled hearing in the U.S. because at the time she was required to wait in Nuevo León, Mexico, where she said it was too dangerous to cross the international bridge at 4 a.m. Because of her missed hearing, she was ordered deported in absentia. But she later went to the port of entry and was allowed into the U.S.; she was placed in detention for nine months and later released under ICE supervision with regular check-ins.
Sánchez’s husband is a naturalized U.S. citizen who is also from Cuba. He was in the process of trying to get Sánchez a green card.
Cañizares is considering requesting humanitarian parole for Sánchez, though she acknowledged it’s “going to be a stretch,” because she has an order of removal that’s already been executed. Other processes being considered are complex and could take years.
“The only thing we are asking for is to be reunited once again,” said Sánchez. “We’re not asking for money. We’re not asking for food … our daughter is suffering. She is the most affected one and that scares us. We hope this message reaches the pertinent people.”
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