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A parent’s nightmare at the U.S. border
父母在美國邊境的噩夢
By Haley Sweetland Edwards
文/哈利·斯威特蘭德·愛德華茲
EARLIER THIS YEAR, A YOUNG HONDURAN woman named Mirian gathered her 18-monthold son into her arms
今年早些時候，來自洪都拉斯的一位名叫米瑞恩的年輕女子懷抱著她18個月大的兒子
and walked across the bridge between Matamoros, Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas, where she presented herself to U.S. border agents to ask for asylum.
走過墨西哥馬塔莫羅斯和德克薩斯州布朗斯維爾之間的橋，向當地的美國邊境官員提出了避難申請。
Mirian and her son spent the night in a detention facility.
當夜米瑞恩和兒子是在拘留中心度過的。
The next day, officials told her to put her son into a car seat in the back of a government vehicle.
次日，官員讓她把兒子放在一輛政府用車的后座上。
Her hands shook as she buckled him in.
她顫抖著雙手將兒子安頓在了后座上。
The officials wouldn’t tell her where they were taking him,
官員們不肯告訴她他們要將她的兒子帶往何處，
she wrote in a personal statement later published by CNN.com—only that she would not be allowed to go with him.
她在隨后由CNN.com發布的一份個人聲明中寫道，只說不允許她隨行。
As the car pulled away, she could see her baby looking back at her through the window, screaming.
車開走的時候，她看到她的孩子在從窗戶里一邊回望一邊尖叫。
For the next 2 months, Mirian was detained at an immigration center, unable to speak with or visit her son, according to her lawyer Elissa Steglich.
接下來的兩個月，米瑞恩被拘留在了一個移民中心，無法與兒子通話，也無法前往探望，據她的律師艾麗莎·斯德格里希透露。
Mirian wondered if her son would forget the sound of her voice.
米瑞恩不知自己的兒子是否已經忘記她的聲音。
“The separation is very harsh,” says Denise Gilman, who heads the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law, and who met with Mirian.
“這種分離非常殘酷，”德克薩斯大學法學院移民診所的負責人丹尼斯·吉爾曼評論道。
“It often means not knowing where the other is.”
“因為通常意味著失去對方的下落。”
Mirian and her son were eventually reunited, but a version of her parental nightmare has now become U.S. policy.
最終，米瑞恩和兒子兩人得以母子團聚，但她所經歷的骨肉分離的噩夢如今已經被寫入了美國的政策。
On May 7, the Trump Administration announced a “zero tolerance” agenda on the U.S. border.
5月7日，特朗普政府宣布在美國邊境實行“零容忍”政策。
The policy seems simple: anyone who crosses the border without authorization is now subject to prosecution for a federal misdemeanor,
政策內容似乎很簡單：從現在起，未經授權跨越邊境之人都將受到聯邦的輕罪起訴，
which can result in a sentence of 180 days for a first offense.
初犯可能被判180天的監禁。
Because children can’t be jailed alongside adults,
由于兒童不能與成年人一起被監禁，
minors must be separated and kept in juvenile facilities while their moms or dads are incarcerated.
因此，其父母被監禁期間，這些未成年人將被隔離起來，關押入青少年拘禁系統。
The crackdown on prosecutions has triggered an explosion of family separations.
對起訴的打擊引發了骨肉分離問題的激增。
While ICE has not released official numbers, Reuters reports that as many as 1,800 families have been separated since late 2016.
盡管ICE尚未公布官方數據，但據路透社報道，自2016年底以來，已被拆散家庭足有1800個。
Regional public defenders report that some 400 children were separated from their families during a two-week stretch in May and June in McAllen, Texas, alone.
地區公設辯護律師報告說，僅今年5月到6月的兩周時間里，就有大約400名兒童在德克薩斯州麥卡倫市與家人分離。
“This is definitely new,” says Diane Eikenberry, an associate director at the National Immigrant Justice Center. “It’s something we haven’t seen.”
“這種情況完全是新情況，”美國國家移民司法中心副主任黛安·艾肯伯里評論道。“我們還從未遇到過。”
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