Correct me if I'm wrong:
I believe that if they take anyone in one of these raids you go to a central processing place. In the case of Boca Chica, it's Haina. At that processing place is where the final decision to deport or release is made.
If the above is accurate, then because they are minors they would not have been deported. Traumatic? Yes, but not deported. I would assume they would have a chance to call mom then.
But I assume that even if they Haitian, they still would not have deported them but released them to a parent/guardian. Then, they could deport the family.
I'm really curious as I have a dog (actually 2) in this fight. My great nephews are 13 and 11 and are blacker than night. I take them everywhere and they are often sent to the store to buy stuff as the belief of their parents is that they will not deport minors.
Yes, you are broadly correct. In my kids' case, they were taken to the centre at Santiago, where they were held overnight. It certainly was traumatic, as they were in cells with adults, in disgusting conditions. So much so, that as soon as they were released they were taken to a hotel to clean up and then to get some new clothes.
I assume that if nobody had come with evidence of their age and being Dominican, they would ultimately have been deported but in this case the mother's boyfriend came with photos of their birth certificates, which although it wasn't sufficient proof allowed us to get them out with a substantial payment. I don't think they are normally held for very long at the Migracion centre before being deported so I may not have been able to get there with the actual birth certificates in time.
What would happen to your young relations I don't know. If they look really young I expect they wouldn't get picked up in the first place. But if they were, you are right that the family, on going to retrieve them, would be picked up and deported as a whole if they are illegal here. As I said previously, we have all seen photos of kids (probably with parents) in Migracion trucks.
