Deportees voice anguish as protesters keep up pressure

Central American migrants deported from the US without their children spoke of their anguish at seeing their families split under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” approach on Saturday, as protesters kept up the pressure against the “barbaric” policy.

Trump on Wednesday ordered an end to the family separations which have sparked domestic and global outrage, but some 2,300 children had already been separated by then.

More than 500 children have already been reunited with family members, according to a fact sheet released by the Department of Homeland Security on Saturday.

“The United States government knows the location of all children in its custody and is working to reunite them with their families,” the department said.

Benjamin Raymundo, a 33-year-old who was deported back to Guatemala, said he left his home country in April with his fiveyear-old son Roberto, but the pair were separated when they were stopped by immigration officers in California.

A brother-in-law who lives in the US and a lawyer managed to find the child’s whereabouts and the boy was eventually placed in this relative’s custody.

“It’s a great sadness for me, as if I’ll never see my son again,” he lamented.