ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – The hard work of Albany County officials paid off with an emotional reunion that followed a deportation. A mother described the harrowing months of separation from her four-year-old daughter, before finally being reunited in Colombia.
Maria Duque-Muriel was not sure if she’d ever see her four-year-old daughter, Maria, again. She was arrested earlier this year for shoplifting at a grocery store in Rotterdam.
She bounced around detention centers in New York before she was sent to a facility in Louisiana. She was deported from that facility in September.
Duque-Muriel said the pair made their way to the U.S. two years ago. They fled violence in Medellín, Colombia. It took seven months of travel. Duque-Muriel said she spent days in the jungle with a sick child.
They eventually ended up in New York and Duque-Muriel found herself in an abusive relationship, up until her arrest on March 5.
“She said it’s like the hardest thing when you’re away from your child and they’re really far away. So it’s sad. But thank God and Halinka and everyone else that helped us to make sure that Maria Angel is with us again,” said Duque-Muriel, through the translation of her attorney, Halinka Zolcik. She went on to describe the mom’s pain.
“It’s terrible knowing that you’re incarcerated and you can’t see her, you can’t even know where she is, or know who she’s with. It’s horrible, absolutely horrible.”
Zolcik said Duque-Muriel called her every other day and asked about her daughter. “She was asking for her daughter because nobody would let her see her for a little while,” said Zolcik.
Duque-Muriel got teary eyed when I asked about those who are currently separated from their children and don’t know if they ever see them again. She advised, “You fight, you fight as hard as you can to be back with your children.”
She recommended something that helped her. “She said I prayed a lot. I prayed, I prayed. I asked God for her back. When I was in my cell I just prayed, that’s all I could do was pray for her and hope that God would make it work,” said Duque-Muriel.
Photos show the emotional reunion. The 4-year-old embraced the warmth of her mother’s arms for the first time after being separated nearly eight months ago.
Maria Duque-Muriel described the feeling, “Aye muy feliz, muy feliz, muy contenta”, Zolcik said “she’s so happy, she’s so content.”
“She said she’s here with them.Thanks to us and everyone that helped,” said Zolcik.
Mom feared her daughter may not remember her, but that was not the case. “She hugged me. She gave me kisses and she cried with me.”
Zolcik said she was seeking asylum and had temporary legal status, under the Biden administration. But the current administration terminated those protections – which ultimately led to Duque-Muriel being mandatorily detained for a low-level offense.
After that the young girl fell into the custody of Albany County. Zolcik said everyone worked together to figure out how to get her back to her mom.
“And eventually the county decided that, you know, since they’re in charge of the child, it would probably be best that they escort the child back so that they ensure 100% that she is back in Colombia with her mother,” said Zolcik.
Project Director for Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York Jim Milstein said immigration enforcement has increased exponentially in the last six months. He wanted a different outcome for this immigration case.
“Our ultimate goal would have been to see the mother released, the mother pursue her asylum case in a non-detained fashion, the mother be successful in her asylum case, or possibly even pursue what’s called the U visa, as a victim of crime because she’d been a victim of domestic violence here in the United States. So there were other avenues open to her,” said Milstein.
Since they’ve been reunited, Maria Angel is stuck to her mother’s hip, even following her to the bathroom.
The mom only speaks Spanish and the daughter is only speaking English right now. “Pues mal porque como no entiendo,” said Duque-Muriel. “Feels really bad cause I don’t understand,” Zolcik translated. Duque-Muriel is using Google translate to talk to her daughter.
I asked the young girl, “are you going to go to school?” she responded, “yeah!” I asked, “What do you want to do when you’re older?” She responded, “A doctor!”
Mom has this message for those separated indefinitely from their loved ones: “Never lose hope or faith. Cause even if you’re separated, you might be back. Cause look at me. I’m happy and I’m here with my child. And thank god for everything so much.”
Mom is looking for a job, but said it’s a challenge because she doesn’t have anything with her since she was just deported.
