Immigrant parents hope to reunite with their children

MARIETTA, Ga. — Georgia parents hoping to reunite with children who have recently reached the U.S. border are starting to share their stories.
 
A Marietta woman says her two children have been in a temporary group home since the beginning of June.

Wendy Leiva told Channel 2’s Kerry Kavanaugh in Spanish that it is hard being so far away from her children.

Para leer esta historia en español, imprima aquí.

Her children are still far away, even after they reached the border. Leiva says she and her husband came to Marietta to provide a better life for the children they left behind in Honduras. They are currently undocumented immigrants, she said.

But Leiva says Honduras was no longer safe for Margie, now 17, and Edbander, 13.

Leiva told Kavanaugh Honduran children either join gangs or risk losing their lives.
 
She says she and her husband started saving money, and sent each child $3,000 to make the long and potentially dangerous journey to the United States.  She says Margie and Edbander joined 12 other children and two women who left Honduras May 27. Four days later they reached Texas and called home.
 
Leiva says once her children reached immigration, the dangerous part was over. The waiting began.
 
For the past month her children have been among the hundreds of unaccompanied minors now in the care of the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Leiva showed Kavanaugh the applications she's filled out to prove she is in fact their mother. The U.S. government has to run intensive background checks on anyone making that claim.
 
Kavanaugh asked Leiva why her family would take this type of risk.
 
Leiva said she and her children were desperate to see each other and reunite. She says her faith in God has gotten them through the ordeal, which is far from over.
 
Leiva was not clear what would happen next to her children. She is expecting a call from them Tuesday night.

WSBTV