“Listen, this is our job. This is our job because our government did something really heinous to these families”
Julie Schwietert Collazo unrolled a giant sheet of paper at her kitchen table in Long Island City, Queens, on a recent morning. As her three children played nearby, she began going down a list of names written on it in purple marker.
“Hillary Estefany. Hillary Alejandra,” she read, explaining they were 19-year-old twins whose brother was separated from them after they illegally crossed the Southwest border. Both were being held in Eloy, Ariz., on $15,000 bonds. “Delmi. She’s from Guatemala,” she went on. “Separation case. $30,000.”
Just over three weeks ago, Ms. Schwietert Collazo launched a crowdfunding campaign on behalf of another woman detained in Eloy, Yeni González, a Guatemalan migrant whose children had been taken from her at the border as part of the Trump Administration’s zero tolerance policy. Ms. Schwietert Collazo was spurred into action after she heard Ms. González’s lawyer on the radio. While Ms. González was being held in Arizona on a $7,500 bond, her three children were living in a foster home in New York.
to read the full article, go to nytimes.com/2018/07/20/crowdfunding-immigrant-children-separated
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