Her Kids Are U.S. Citizens. Trump's Admin Disappeared Them Anyway

[riversedge]

Her Kids Are U.S. Citizens. Trump's Admin Disappeared Them Anyway

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/her-kids-are-u-s-citizens-trump-s-admin-disappeared-them-anyway/ar-AA1OdrAV?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=fe50b9e0144d4cb89dc892baf57b84cc&ei=19

Story by Tim Dickinson • 7h •


Jackie and her kids had been missing for four days.

When Mimi Lettunich, a family friend with powerful social connections in Portland, Oregon, learned of their disappearance, she spared no effort to locate the immigrant mother and her four U.S. citizen children.

It would take another eight days - and an unorthodox road trip by a hands-on member of Congress - before the Trump administration would even disclose where it was holding the family. And it would be four days after that before the children were released to Lettunich and set free from conditions likened in a congressional hearing to "psychological torture."


The story of Jackie Merlos is singular and conscience-shocking. "They literally disappeared her - kept her from due process in the presence of her four U.S. citizen children," Rep. Maxine Dexter, who serves Portland in Congress, tells Rolling Stone. But her experience is also emblematic of the full-throttle mass-deportation machinery put into motion by the Trump administration. "Our government is kidnapping people," Dexter says, "and holding them in incredibly inhumane situations."

The Merlos family nightmare began, ironically, with a hug, at Peace Arch Park.

Kenia Jackeline "Jackie" Merlos is the mother of four children under the age of 10. Although she arrived undocumented from Honduras more than two decades ago, Jackie was a model non-citizen, with a pending U-visa, a work permit, and no criminal record. She and her husband Carlos own a small business in Portland. Jackie had been the worship director in her church. ..................

Link to tweet