SEPARATED
David, 27, worked a series of jobs as a laborer and construction worker. He and his 23-year-old wife, Florinda, slept in one bed in their two-room, cinder blockand-wood house; Byron and his two younger brothers slept in a second bed.
They went to church almost every day. David says he follows the word of God, preaching it to others as his father did. His preaching caught the notice of gangsters who tried to recruit him; when he refused, because his faith forbids violence, they threatened him and his eldest son, he says.
On May 4, 2018, David and Byron left San Miguel to seek asylum in the United States. David borrowed money to hire a human smuggler — a “coyote” — for about $6,000.
They were smuggled through Mexico by truck. For part of the 14-day journey, they rode in a wooden crate. At the Rio Grande, the coyote sent them, and about 20 other migrants, across the river in the middle of the night.
The Border Patrol was waiting.
David was charged with illegal entry on May 19, the day after they were detained.
Two days later, an officer presented him with a document in English that he couldn’t read. If he signed it, the officer said, he could be deported with Byron. David refused.
He says a second officer told him that if he tried to seek asylum, the two would be separated. David would be detained for at least two years, and Byron would be given up for adoption. Their only option was to sign the document and be deported together.
He signed, renouncing his asylum claim. He didn’t know the document would allow the agents to take his son away.
Seven days later, he was deported without his son.
After returning to Guatemala, David found work chopping trees at a palm oil plant an hour’s drive from San Miguel. The debt he had undertaken to pay the coyote has grown from $6,000 to $8,000. His monthly salary at the palm oil plant is about $400. His payments on the debt take up almost all of that. To pay for food, he works extra hours.
Alerted to the Xols’ case by news coverage, Ricardo de Anda, a human rights lawyer working with the American Civil Liberties Union, went to Guatemala to discuss an idea: David should petition to return to the United States while Byron remains here. David agreed.
Byron initially was sent to an old elementary school just outside Houston that had been converted to house 160 children. Operated by the nonprofit Baptist Child and Family Services, the facility had beds, common areas, classes, phones to call family and lawyers, and three meals a day. It was the first of four facilities where Byron would live over the next year.
De Anda wanted to get Byron out of the system and into a real home. Through other lawyers, he found Matthew and Holly Sewell, who live in a spacious, fivebedroom house near Austin, Texas, with their two kids.
Watching the news last summer, the Sewells heard that children were being detained after their parents had been deported. And they thought: Why not provide a real home for at least one child?
Though David and Florinda approved, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services refused several requests from the Sewells to sponsor Byron because they weren’t related to him and had no prior relationship with his family.
De Anda sued HHS in February. In April, a federal judge ordered HHS to consider the Sewells as sponsors.
The Sewells got the call: Byron was being flown to Austin, and they needed to bring a wheelchair. A few weeks earlier, they were told, Byron had broken his right leg playing soccer.
Holly Sewell requested Byron’s medical records from the facility. They show that Byron’s thigh fracture was misdiagnosed at one point as a broken ankle. Several days passed after the injury before Byron was placed in a full cast. And the break was on Byron’s growth plate, the soft area in his leg that had not yet hardened to bone. If not treated properly, the break could stunt his growth.
The Sewells took him to a doctor specializing in pediatric foot injuries, and enrolled him in physical therapy.
As Byron recovered, the Sewells started to see more of his personality — his wide smile, his sense of humor — and his ability to adapt.
For 11 months in government facilities, the staff members watching over Byron weren’t allowed to hug him. At his birthday party, he ran up to Holly several times for an embrace or to ride on her back.
“I say, ‘Do you need a hug?’ and the answer is always yes,” Holly said.
David is one of 21 parents included in the American Civil Liberties motion whose children are in the United States and separated from them. They all are asking to be allowed to re-enter the country and seek asylum.
The ACLU argues that David and the others were denied a fair chance to request asylum. The government says that if David and other parents want to be with their children, they should agree to have those children returned to them.
If the ACLU wins, David could be in the United States in a matter of weeks. He would then petition for the admission of Florinda and their other two children.
If the ACLU loses, Byron will most likely return to Guatemala.