MIAMI \u2014 Miami city leaders discussed the 287-G program Thursday, which gives local police the authority to enforce immigration law. No decision was made. But for some South Florida families, the impact of that authority is already being felt.<\/p>\n
At Miami International Airport, Jose grips his two boys\u2019 hands on the way to the gate. He\u2019s sending his 3-year-old, Ethan, and 6-year-old, Abel, to stay with family while he stays behind to work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI go out to work with the fear that one day the same thing could happen to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t want his boys going through what happened to 3-year-old Christina. She was with her babysitter when her mom, then her dad, were detained and later deported \u2014 leaving the toddler alone.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s not the only one.<\/p>\n
Volunteers with South Florida\u2019s Guatemalan-Maya Center have been organizing flights to reunite children with loved ones in Guatemala. As detentions and deportations spiked in South Florida, the calls about children being left alone kept coming.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re leaving the only country they\u2019ve ever known and they\u2019re flying without their parents,\u201d one volunteer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of this is happening because of 287-G that our local officials signed,\u201d another added.<\/p>\n
The youngest in the group is Angel. He\u2019s one. His grandmother, Magdalena, a cleaning lady whose husband was deported, came to the airport to self-deport \u2014 and helped keep an eye on Jose\u2019s kids as he said his goodbyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re my life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Guatemalan-Maya Center is covering the cost of these flights through public donations. So far, children have been flown to Guatemala, Colombia, and El Salvador.<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n
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