"She was deported without her toddler. Then ICE blamed her for his killing."
ICE accused Wendy Hernandez Reyes of leaving her child with a violent uncle, but she says her son would still be alive if officers hadn’t detained and deported her.
- The Washington Post
"Hernandez does not match the profile of the 'worst of the worst' criminals that the Department of Homeland Security has promised to prioritize for removal. She is a victim of domestic violence, her lawyer said, and has no criminal record. But in President Donald Trump’s second term, the stated goal is to remove as many undocumented immigrants as possible. That has increasingly included parents of young children, who are being placed in foster care, living with relatives or even left to fend for themselves — with little or no follow-up to ensure they are safe.
Nothing in federal law requires ICE — or any other agency — to check in with a child’s caregiver after detaining their parents, attorneys say. Agency policy calls for following parents’ wishes for their children, including removing them together, but immigration lawyers say requests to be deported as a family are often ignored. The lack of safeguards for the children left behind is considered a glaring blind spot in a system going full-tilt to deport record numbers of immigrants.
Hernandez said she repeatedly urged ICE officers to let her son go with her, but her pleas were met with silence.
“How could I abandon my son, if my son was the love of my life?” Hernandez, 29, said in an interview. “I did everything with my son. I am not a bad mother who left my child with a killer.”
ICE did not respond to questions about how officers handled the case and whether they checked on Orlin afterward. The Florida Department of Children and Families, which responds to allegations of abuse, also did not respond to questions about the case."
~ Maria Sacchetti
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