Migrant family separated under Trump wins asylum, but others remain in limbo

Washington — Four years ago, Fernando Arredondo was sitting on a plane with his arms shackled, waiting for the U.S. government to deport him to Guatemala, which he had fled with his family after his teenage son was murdered. 

Months earlier, Arredondo had been separated from his 12-year-old daughter Andrea along the U.S.-Mexico border under a Trump administration policy that sparked global condemnation. Like hundreds of parents caught up in the policy, Arredondo was deported from the U.S. without his daughter or a chance to see a judge.

When Arredondo was recently told by his lawyer that his family had won asylum in the U.S., he said he immediately thought about the forced separation from Andrea and his deportation — a period in which he lost weight, developed a urinary tract infection and fell into a deep depression.