Each month, Imelda Richárd, Prison Ministry Coordinator for the Archdiocese of Atlanta, shares stories from the immigration detention unit in Atlanta’s federal prison. Names are changed for protection.
There was nothing abstract about B.’s fear or his hope this morning. They had names and faces. They were the children waiting for him at home.
B. has been in immigration detention for two weeks.
He was on his way to work when he was detained.
B. is from Mexico City and grew up near the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. His devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe has been part of his life since childhood, and his faith remains a source of strength as he faces the uncertainty of detention and separation from his family.
At home, B. has two very young children: a three-year-old son and a baby girl who is only six weeks old.
Before his detention, B. was the one who put his little boy to bed every night. Now, he told me, his son does not want to go to sleep without his dad. When they speak on the phone, the little boy cries because he wants his father home.
As B. shared this with me during my visit this morning, he cried too.
But his greatest worry right now is his newborn daughter.
Shortly after she was born, doctors discovered that she has a heart murmur that will require surgery. According to B., the doctors have told the family that the presence of both parents will be important as they move forward with her care and surgery. Her first appointment with the specialist is scheduled for mid-September.
B. does not know what will happen with his immigration case by then.
He wants to fight his case and remain in the United States. Right now, however, his thoughts are centered on his children: a little boy waiting for his dad to put him to bed again, and a newborn daughter who needs medical care.
During my visit with B. this morning, we prayed together for his baby girl’s health. B. turned to the devotion that has accompanied him since childhood. He entrusted both of his children to Our Lady of Guadalupe, asking her to watch over them and protect them while he cannot be there to do so himself.
There was nothing abstract about B.’s fear or his hope this morning. They had names and faces. They were the children waiting for him at home.
For now, separated from them and unable to hold them himself, B. has placed them in the hands of the Mother he has trusted since he was a child growing up near her Basilica.
Please keep B., his baby daughter, his little boy, and their family in your prayers. And may Our Lady of Guadalupe hold his children especially close while they wait for their father to come home.
