{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-572d6a42.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-f4d0de30.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='Guatemalan Man Recounts Separation from Toddler' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54d7bed8eafeecae20e64f' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54d7bed8eafeecae20e64f' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nGuatemalan Man Recounts Separation from Toddler\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003eThree-year-old Genesis Gonzalez Lopez giggled excitedly as she played with her father at a sunny Utah park, zipping down a slide again and again into his arms.              The happy scene this week in Provo, south of Salt Lake City, was...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003eThree-year-old Genesis Gonzalez Lopez giggled excitedly as she played with her father at a sunny Utah park, zipping down a slide again and again into his arms.\u003cbr/\u003e              The happy scene this week in Provo, south of Salt Lake City, was a far cry from what the pair experienced on Thanksgiving, when U.S. immigration authorities took Romulo Gonzalez Rodriguez into custody at the U.S.-Mexico border and whisked away the frightened girl, with no explanation of where she'd end up.\u003cbr/\u003e              Gonzalez had fled Guatemala with the then-2-year-old after kidnappers held him captive, ripped out his right eye and forced his family to pay a $13,500 ransom for his life. He traveled by bus and train to a San Diego port of entry to seek asylum in the United States and was separated from his daughter for seven days.\u003cbr/\u003e              \"It's painful to be running away and come to where you think they're going to rescue you, and they take the measure of separating children,\" the father told The Associated Press in Spanish on Tuesday. \"You fall again into fear and the same anguish that you're leaving behind.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              Gonzalez's experience offers a window into the distress and uncertainty parents endure when they are separated from their children at the border, even though it happened before President Donald Trump's administration in April adopted a \"zero tolerance\" policy in which all unlawful border crossings were referred for prosecution.\u003cbr/\u003e              The policy led to a spike in family separations in recent weeks, provoking a national uproar and pressure from Trump's allies. In a dramatic reversal, the president on Wednesday signed an executive order ending the practice, keeping families together while they're in custody, expediting their cases and asking the Department of Defense to help house families.\u003cbr/\u003e              In Gonzalez's case, it's unclear why he and his daughter were separated since he surrendered at the border and is not being prosecuted for illegal entry.\u003cbr/\u003e              It has been longstanding practice for Homeland Security to separate adults and minors at the border when it's unable to confirm they're related or if it believes a child is at risk. But Gonzalez has no record criminal record, his attorney Mari Alvarado Tsosie said.\u003cbr/\u003e              Gonzalez has a brother in Provo who sought Alvarado's advice after Gonzalez was held for ransom in his home country. Gonzalez followed her instructions, arriving at the San Ysidro Port of Entry with his daughter Nov. 23 and handing U.S. immigration authorities a Guatemalan police report about his kidnapping.\u003cbr/\u003e              Authorities shepherded his young daughter into another room while Gonzalez answered questions. He thought they would be reunited when he was done, but he was instead taken to a detention center without his daughter, Alvarado said. When he asked where she was, they wouldn't tell him, he said.\u003cbr/\u003e              Gonzalez said he then spent seven days at a cold facility where the lights never turned off, wondering if his daughter was safe and if he would ever see her again. In Guatemala, his kidnappers had threated to dismember the child, and he suspected corrupt authorities were involved. His mind raced with worries U.S. law enforcement was corrupt too.\u003cbr/\u003e              \"It's tremendous anguish because you don't get any answers from authorities,\" Gonzalez said at his attorney's office in Provo, his daughter sitting on his lap. \"They don't give you information, and you don't know the laws. ... You're wondering: Where is she? What is she doing? Such a small child.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              Parents who surrender at U.S. ports of entry have occasionally been separated from their children with no formal explanation since long before the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy, said Dan Kowalski, editor of Bender's Immigration Bulletin, a national journal focused on immigration cases and law. He believes it's because of a lack of training, leadership and standard operating procedures that allows border agents to make up rules as they go.\u003cbr/\u003e              If they suspected Gonzalez was abusing the child or trafficking her, they would have sent the case to prosecutors, Kowalski said.\u003cbr/\u003e              A spokesman with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had no immediate comment on the case.\u003cbr/\u003e              After learning of Gonzalez's situation, Alvarado began calling every ICE facility in Southern California looking for him and the child. It took her three days to find Gonzalez at San Diego's Otay Mesa Detention Center and another four days to reunite him with his daughter.\u003cbr/\u003e              To this day, Alvarado doesn't know where Genesis was held, though she believes the girl was somewhere in San Diego. All the girl has said is that she ate a lot of cereal.\u003cbr/\u003e              The father and daughter are staying with Gonzalez's brother while they await word on the asylum request. A hearing is set for Oct. 22 at a Salt Lake City immigration court.\u003cbr/\u003e              Gonzalez's wife and two step-children are in hiding in Guatemala and waiting until he can send enough money for them to make the journey north.\u003cbr/\u003e              Genesis is too young to say what happened to her while they were apart or express how it affected her. But her father said she was sickly when they reunited, and seems nervous and clingier now. She starts therapy later this month.\u003cbr/\u003e              On Tuesday, Genesis looked like a typical, sweet toddler, hugging her father tightly and giving him kisses while he spoke.\u003cbr/\u003e              Gonzalez is happy to be safe for now but said he's living in limbo not knowing if he'll be forced to return to the Guatemalan beach town that he once loved, where he now fears he'll be killed if he returns. He wears a glass eye following his attack.\u003cbr/\u003e              Between that ordeal and the separation from Genesis, Gonzalez said he suffered significant trauma of his own that he has yet to deal with.\u003cbr/\u003e              \"It's a situation I don't wish upon any father or human being,\" he said. \"It affects you a lot psychologically, emotionally. There are moments when I remember it all, and I start to cry for no reason.\"\u003cbr/\u003e            \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e              ASSOCIATED PRESS\u003cbr/\u003e              Provo, Utah – June 19, 2018\u003cbr/\u003e              1. Various of Romulo Gonzalez Rodriguez playing with daughter Genesis Gonzalez Lopez in park\u003cbr/\u003e              2. Genesis Gonzalez Lopez with father in the office of attorney Mari Alvarado Tsosie\u003cbr/\u003e              3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Romulo Gonzalez Rodriguez, asylum applicant:\u003cbr/\u003e              \"Regrettably, it's painful to be running away and come to where you think they're going to rescue you and they take the measure of separating children. They separate you and you fall again into fear and the same anguish that you're leaving behind. You think the authorities in this country are the same as the authorities in your own country. You think that they are going to kidnap you or your child is going to get lost. There's so much evil.\" \u003cbr/\u003e              4. Romulo Gonzalez Rodriguez plays with daughter Genesis Gonzalez Lopez in park\u003cbr/\u003e              5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Romulo Gonzalez Rodriguez, asylum applicant: \u003cbr/\u003e              \"You imagine the worst. So many things go through your head. You come from having been kidnapped, from being abducted, an extortion, the loss of my eye and all that so I'm thinking about what they could do to my daughter. It's tremendous anguish because you don't get any answers from authorities in that moment. They set you apart and you don't know anything. They don't give you information and you don't know the laws, you don't know anything. It's a tremendous anguish. You're wondering: Where is she? What is she doing? What is happening with her? Such a small child.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              6. Various of attorney Mari Alvarado Tsosie in her office\u003cbr/\u003e              7. SOUNDBITE (English) Mari Alvarado Tsosie, attorney:\u003cbr/\u003e              \"He was just a good, law-abiding citizen. Then, one day six men came to his home and they knew, they targeted. They knew who they were going for. It was in front of his wife and his children. They grabbed him, they binded him, they bound him and they told the wife, 'We'll get in touch with you to give you our demands' and they just left. About a week later, they delivered Romulo's eye to the wife and said we need a ransom.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              8. Various of copy of the Guatemalan police report about the kidnapping of Romulo Gonzalez Rodriguez\u003cbr/\u003e              9. SOUNDBITE (English) Mari Alvarado Tsosie, attorney:\u003cbr/\u003e              \"He came, he did exactly what I told them. I said, 'Go to the port of entry'. I'm very familiar with California. 'Go through there.' He went through California and upon surrendering, and he told them he had the police report. He showed everything; just exactly how the U.S. recommends the asylum law works, they immediately separated him and his daughter.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              10. Various of Romulo Gonzalez Rodriguez playing with daughter in park\u003cbr/\u003e              11. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Romulo Gonzalez Rodriguez, asylum applicant:\u003cbr/\u003e              \"So, I was living with uncertainty. There was psychological damage, not only for me, but for the little girl, because we had been separated for several days. But thanks to God, I was able to reunite with her.\" \u003cbr/\u003e              12. 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