Separated migrant family to attend State of the Union

An undocumented Guatemalan mother and daughter separated at the US-Mexico border will attend President Donald Trump's State of the Union address on February 5, a Senator announced.

"I'm bringing Albertina and Yakelin as my guests to the State of the Union because we need to bear witness to the suffering that this cruel policy inflicted, and resolve to make sure that nothing like this ever happens in the US again," Democrat Senator Jeff Merkley said in a statement on Friday.

Launched last year, the Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy mandates criminal prosecution of every adult who enters the country illegally, Efe news reported.

While the adult migrants are jailed pending trial, their children are placed in separate detention families.

Nearly 3,000 children were separated from parents under the policy, which, in Merkley's words, "came from a dark and evil place within the heart of this administration".

Albertina Contreras and daughter Yakelin Garcia, then 11, were separated at the border early 2018 and kept apart for nearly two months.

"It was really terrible when they took me away from my mother, because I had no idea that we were going to be separated," Yakelin said in the statement released by the Senator's office.

"She kept telling me to be strong and have faith and that we were going to be together again as they took me away. I tried really hard to do what my mom said and stay strong, but I couldn't stop crying and crying."

Speaking to the media on Friday evening, Trump hinted that he may use the opportunity of the State of the Union to declare a national emergency that would allow him to fund his US-Mexico border wall.

"I'm saying, listen closely to the State of the Union. I think you'll find it very exciting," the President said at the White House.

Pressed for specifics, Trump replied: "I don't want to say - you'll hear the State of the Union and then you'll see what happens right after the State of the Union."

Trump, who last week agreed to end an impasse over wall money that led to the longest partial government shutdown in US history, insisted that the barrier would be built whether or not the Democrats, now in control of the House of Representatives, provide funding.

--IANS

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