When 17-year-old Angelica arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in November, her older sister Deisy began the process of applying to be Angelica’s sponsor so that the sisters could live together. Angelica was pregnant at the time, and Deisy, who has a young daughter, was eager to care for her sister and the new baby.
Deisy consented to a home study and provided the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the government agency responsible for unaccompanied undocumented minors, with her passport and fingerprints — which she was assured would not be used in relation to immigration enforcement.
But before the sisters could be reunited, President Donald Trump took office and his administration changed the sponsorship rules, making it nearly impossible for undocumented adults to sponsor children. Despite Angelica and her infant daughter having a loving home awaiting them, they are trapped in an ORR shelter.
“There is nothing that I want more than to live with my sister,” Angelica wrote in an April court declaration. “I don’t think it is fair that the government keeps me in custody when I could live safely with my sister. I want my baby to grow up with family, not in a shelter,” she wrote in a separate declaration that same month.
