Ma’s moment
Back with kids, she tells others to fight
Yeni Gonzalez Garcia — the mom from Guatemala who was bonded out of ICE detention and brought to the city with the help of donations from New Yorkers — was given custody of her children Friday afternoon.
Gonzalez Garcia was separated from her three children after they crossed the southern border — she was held at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, while her children were brought to Cayuga Centers, a social service organization in Harlem. She was released and driven to New York thanks to a fundraising effort started by Queens writer and mom Julie Schwietert Collazo.
“I want to send a message to all the mothers that are detained in Eloy, and through several centers that are desperate, that want to get out to be reunified with their children, and I want to send a message to all the mothers that are fighting, that with the help of people like Julie, they are going to come out of this,” Gonzalez Garcia said in remarks that were translated by her attorney, José XavierOrochena.
Her children, dressed in play clothes, curiously took in the scene — complete with elected officials, cameras, advocates and the mothers from Queens who helped make her trip happen. Asked in Spanish how he was doing, the oldest said simply: “Bien.”
“Don’t piss off mothers, because this is what happens” Xavier-Orochena said. “They will be able to mobilize a lot of people.”
And they plan to continue to mobilize, said Schwietert-Collazo, who was inspired to begin raising money after hearing Xavier-Orochena tell Gonzalez Garcia’s story on WNYC.
“Yeni is the first of many who have been helped to get out of detention,” she said.
Representatives from the group Immigrant Families Together said they’d raised $169,000 to post bond for six women so far, and are raising cash to bond out three more.
The effort also involved elected officials — including Gov. Cuomo, who provided additional legal support for Gonzalez Garcia.
Gonzalez Garcia plans to head to North Carolina to stay with her sister and her children as she goes through the process to seek asylum, her lawyer said.
Another family was also reunited Friday at Cayuga — a mother from Honduras and her two children, 7 and 11. They were whisked into a car driven by a volunteer and are headed to Kingston, where family members have been staying after previously entering the country separate from the mother and children.
Another mother the group helped, Rosayra Pablo-Cruz, was reunited with her two sons, Jordy Pablo-Cruz, 15, and Fernando Pablo-Cruz, 5. Pablo-Cruz had been bonded out at 5 p.m. Thursday in Arizona, and was able to fly to the city because she had a Guatamalan passport, said Xavier-Orochena, who is also representing her. The mom was beaming as she walked down the sidewalk with her sons