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Otilia Asig-Putul's voice breaks as she recalls the 45 endless days she was separated from her son.
The nightmare began when she crossed the Mexican border into the United States to ask political asylum in the policy of "zero tolerance" of Donald Trump's government on illegal immigration.
She had just completed a long and exhausting journey from Guatemala, accompanied by her 11-year-old son, called "Geremy" to protect his identity, and a nephew.
Otilia left behind two other boys of ten and four, and a six-year-old girl. She had separated from her husband, who stopped giving him money, and decided to emigrate to the United States in order to be able to better support her children.
She did not give many details of the trip itself, but they have traveled with other families and were helped by "a guy".
At the San Luis, Arizona, border post, they surrendered the authorities, the first step to seek asylum.
It was a hot day in May, remembered by Otilia and Geremy
The immigration police officer had them sit in a car with closed windows.
"It was so hot," says the 31-year-old mother to AFP in a phone interview. "I did not know what to do, I started crying"
The first tears of a long series
"I never imagined what was going to happen", continues the one who studied to become an accountant, otherwise "how could I put my son's life in danger?"
– "Say goodbye to your son" –
Otilia and Geremy went from the fiery heat of the car to what migrants call "the freezer": detention centers of the federal authorities, notoriously freezing rooms.
"They kept us three days in the cold, on the ground," she recalls. "The police mocked us in English."
Geremy keeps a particularly traumatic image of these early days of captivity: "They took (his mother) with chains to the feet, hands and belt."
"I felt very bad, I burst into tears," he remembers.
The worst was when an immigration officer asked Otilia to "say goodbye to your son ".
" He started crying, we said goodbye. "
She was then sent to the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona while being taken to north of Chicago, 3,000 kilometers from his mother.
"I did not know what to do", "would they expel me" out of the United States, says the young woman. "How was I going to know where my son was, I was very scared."
In the Chicago reception center, Geremy was badaulted by a 14-year-old boy and suffered a head injury requiring hospital treatment.
The law firm Nexus Human Rights, which took charge of this case, sued the center for negligence.
"My social worker treated me badly," also denounces Geremy. [19659002WiththehelpofotherinmatesOtiliamanagedtofindoutwherehissonhadbeentakenandtotalktohimonthephone:"Hewasverybrave"
She was released a month later after the payment of $ 20,000 bail, paid for by Nexus who represents it for free. This allows Otilia to remain in the United States while her asylum application is being examined.
Nexus represents 60 of the more than 2,500 cases of children separated from their parents at the border from the beginning of May, during the policy of separation of families, interrupted as a result of the global indignation it caused.
A federal judge in San Diego ordered all children to be reunited with their parents by July 26 but the administration of US President Donald Trump said he needed more time. 364 family reunions have taken place so far, according to the Department of Justice.
Geremy was finally released at the end of June, and he and his mother have been living at the paternal uncle's in Miami Beach , and her son: the nephew with whom they crossed.
Nexus says she will not be deported unless ordered by a judge.
Her priority now is to find a job . "I left my three children behind and I have to fight for them."
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