For seven months the children had waited with their dad in Matamoros, across from Brownsville, to ask US authorities for asylum. They had fled their home after death threats from local gang members and no help from police. They had also been victims of sexual assault.

But in March, after their father suddenly didn't return from his construction job, a neighbor took the children to the international bridge. He said they should present themselves to US immigration authorities, who would reunite the girls with their mother in Houston.

"Mami," the eldest panicked in a brief call immigration agents made to the mother. "Daddy didn't come home."

US officials gave dozens of detained immigrant parents an ultimatum – allow your children to be released from detention without you or face indefinite detention together, according to legal representatives from the country’s three family detention centers.

In one chaotic day on Thursday, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) instituted what legal representatives for detained families called an “indefinite detention or family separation” policy. Ice officials met with asylum-seeking parents, gave them papers and told them conflicting things about what signing the documents meant, advocates said.

At the country’s largest family detention center in Dilley, Texas, a lawyer said Ice stopped mothers from keeping copies of the document and ignored their requests to speak to attorneys before signing.

Click here to read the rest of The Guardian article.

• Though Houston’s foreign-born residents make up 23.3 percent of the metro’s overall population, they represent 30 percent of its working-age population and 30.6 percent of its employed labor force.
• 4 percent of employed immigrants in Houston were entrepreneurs in 2016. That year, they generated $3.2 billion in business income.
• In 2016, immigrants in the Houston metro area contributed $5 billion to Social Security and $1.4 billion to Medicare.

Click here to read the entire New American Economy report.

thank you letters to the wonderful people who make donations to JFON Houston each month, updating the website and looking for free and low-cost services in the area that will help JFON Houston clients – just to name a few.

Rachel has made working in non-profits her mission.  “I love working in a position that allows me to help others,” said Rachel.  “Helping people accomplish their dreams and seeing how dedicated and brave they are in their journey is inspiring.”  Rachel added that when she hears about the horrors that inspired many JFON Houston clients to leave their homelands nothing seems insurmountable.  “I am amazed at the strength and braveness of our clients daily and it helps me understand more of my own family history,” she said.

Working from home the last two months has been good and bad Rachel said.  While she enjoys seeing her daughter during the day, she also really misses interacting with the JFON Houston staff.

When Rachel isn’t focused on JFON Houston, she loves to try new recipes out on her family and spend time with her husband and almost teen-aged daughter!

This newsletter is made possible, in part, by a generous gift from the Texas Methodist Foundation.