Door of Hope Unites Latino Children with Migrant Parents at US-Mexico Border Chronicle of Social Change
go to original June 24, 2016

For a brief moment the US-Mexico border was opened for families. These families were separated for years because of our broken immigration system. (Fusion)

Imagine you are a five-year-old child and you are unable to hug your mom or dad. A wall divides you from their warm embrace. Never again are you to feel their touch or have the daily experience of their love.

The wall at International Friendship Park, located at the border between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, is this divide for many families. Enrique Morones and his team at the nonprofit organization, Border Angels, have changed that experience for several families. With their help and negotiation with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, a few selected families on Mexico’s Children’s day are able to reunite with their parents for a simple embrace lasting a few minutes just as Luis Rene and his daughter Ximena did, seen in the photo below.

In 2013, the first time since the early 1990s when the fence was built along the border, Enrique Morone convinced Customs and Border Patrol to open the sealed door, which people refer to as the “Door of Hope.”

Morones pointed to the picture of a father and daughter hanging on the wall of his office.

“I convinced Border Patrol for the first time to open the Door of Hope so a daughter and father could finally hug and reunite,” Morones said.

Morones and his Border Angels have been able to negotiate opening the Door of Hope every year since.

Read the rest at Social Justice Solutions

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