The Trump administration separates thousands of immigrant families in the United States

MIAMI (AP) — President Donald Trump’s tough immigration policy led to more than 5,000 children being separated from their families at the Mexico border during his first term, when photos of infants and toddlers taken from their mothers’ arms drew global condemnation.

Seven years later, the families are separated, but in a very different way. With illegal border crossings at their lowest levels in seven decades, mass deportation campaign divides mixed-status families within the US

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Federal officials and their local law enforcement partners are detaining tens of thousands of asylum seekers and immigrants. Detainees are frequently transferred, then deported, or held in poor conditions for weeks or months before requesting to return home.

The federal government detained more than 66,000 people on average in November, an all-time high.

During the first Trump administration, families were forcibly separated at the border and authorities struggled to find children in a large-scale shelter system because government computer systems were not linked together. Now parents are being arrested within the United States by immigration authorities and separated from their families during prolonged detention. Or they choose for their children to remain in the United States after an adult is deported, many after years or decades of residence in the United States.

The Trump administration and its anti-immigration supporters see it as an “unprecedented success,” and Tom Homan, Trump’s top border adviser, told reporters in April: “We will continue to do this, full speed ahead.”

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Three families separated from them by immigration enforcement in recent months told The Associated Press that their dreams of a better, freer life have conflicted with Washington’s new immigration policy, and that they are agonizing in their existence without knowing whether they will see their loved ones again.

For them, migration was the potential beginning of permanent separation between parents and children, and a source of deep pain and uncertainty.

A family divided between Florida and Venezuela

Antonio Laverde left Venezuela for the United States in 2022, crossed the border illegally, and then requested asylum.

He obtained a work permit and driver’s license and worked as an Uber driver in Miami, sharing homes with other immigrants so he could send money to relatives in Venezuela and Florida.

Laverde’s wife, Jacqueline Passedo, and their sons followed him from Venezuela to Miami in December 2024. Passedo focused on taking care of her sons while her husband earned enough to support the family. Passedo and his children received refugee status, but Laverde, 39, never did, and when he left for work early that June morning, he was arrested by federal agents.

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Passedo says it was the result of mistaken identity by agents looking for a suspect at their shared residence. Eventually, she and her two children, ages 3 and 5, remember the agents handcuffing Laverde at gunpoint.

“They fell ill with fever, cried for their father, and asked for him,” Passedo said.

Laverde was detained at the Broward Transitional Center, a detention center in Pompano Beach, Florida. In September, after three months in detention, he requested to return to Venezuela.

However, Passedo, 39, has no plans to return. She fears being arrested or kidnapped for criticizing the socialist government and belonging to the political opposition.

She works as an office cleaner, and despite all the obstacles, hopes to one day reunite with her husband in the United States

They followed the law

Jawska’s husband was a political activist in Nicaragua, a country in the grip of married authoritarian co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

She recalls her husband receiving death threats and being beaten by police when he refused to participate in a pro-government march.

Yauska used only her first name and requested that her identity not be revealed to her husband to protect him from the Nicaraguan government.

The couple fled Nicaragua to the United States with their 10-year-old son in 2022, crossed the border and were granted immigration parole. They settled in Miami, applied for asylum and had a second son who holds American citizenship. Jawska is now five months pregnant with her third child.

In late August, Jawska, 32, went to an appointment at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in South Florida. Her family accompanied her. Her husband, 35, was taken into custody and failed a true fear interview, according to a court document.

Jawska was released under 24-hour surveillance with a GPS watch that she could not remove. Her husband was deported to Nicaragua after spending three months in the Krome Detention Center, the oldest immigration detention center in the United States with a long history of abuse.

Jawska now shares family news with her husband over the phone. She said the children were suffering without their father.

“It is very difficult to see my children in this condition,” Jawska said, her voice trembling. “They arrested him right in front of their eyes.”

They do not want to eat and often become ill. The youngest wakes up at night asking about him.

“I’m scared in Nicaragua,” she said. “But I’m afraid here too.”

Jawska said her work permit is valid until 2028, but the future is scary and uncertain.

“I applied to several recruitment agencies, but no one contacted me,” she said. “I don’t know what will happen to me.”

He was arrested by local police and deported

Edgar left Guatemala more than two decades ago. While working in construction, he started a family in South Florida with Amafelia, a fellow undocumented Guatemalan immigrant.

The arrival of their son brought them happiness.

Amafilia, 31, said: “He was very happy with the baby – he loved him. He told me he would see him grow up and walk.”

But within a few days, Edgar was arrested on a 2016 warrant for driving without a license in Homestead, the small farming town where he lived in South Florida.

She and her husband declined to provide their last names because they are concerned about repercussions from US immigration officials.

Amafilia expects to be released within 48 hours. Instead, Edgar, who declined to be interviewed, was handed over to immigration officials and taken to Krome.

“I fell into a state of despair,” Amafilia said. “I didn’t know what to do.” “I can’t go.”

Edgar, 45, was deported to Guatemala on June 8.

After Edgar’s arrest, Amafilia was unable to pay the $950 rent for the two-bedroom apartment she shared with another immigrant. During the first three months, it received donations from immigration advocates.

Today, while breastfeeding and caring for two children, she wakes up at 3 a.m. to cook lunches that she sells for $10 each.

She walks her son in the stroller to take her daughter to school, then spends afternoons selling homemade ice cream and chocolate-covered bananas door to door with her two children.

Amavilia crossed the border in September 2023 and has not requested asylum or any type of legal status. She said her daughter was concerned about the police. She urges her to stay calm, smile, and walk confidently.

She said: “I am afraid to go out, but I always go out and entrust myself to God.” “Every time I come home, I feel happy and grateful.”