Lawmakers’ New Plan to Bring Back Deported Migrants Separated From Families

Lawmakers are fighting to bring back migrants and their children who have been unfairly deported, with a new resolution which would see them return to the U.S.

Newsweek can reveal that congressmen plan to introduce a resolution, known as Chance to Come Home, that would help migrants return despite not necessarily having legal status.

More than a million migrants have been turned back since 2021, and congressmen are concerned that some have been deprived of the right to live in a place they consider their home.

Newsweek has spoken to two deportees who consider themselves Americans, but were deported to their parents’ home countries with no way back to their families.

“I’ve been away from my family and my kids for seven years now,” Tina Hamdi, who was sent to Morocco seven years ago, told Newsweek. “You wouldn’t think that a country you grew up in would just up and turn its back on you for just one thing and not have an understanding of what led up to the situation, either,” Tina added, explaining that she was deported after becoming caught up in an abusive relationship.

The resolution is set to be presented in both chambers of Congress in the coming weeks, promoted by Representatives Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) and David Trone (D-MD), along with Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ).

“We are calling for a mechanism to reunite families,” Rep. Cleaver told Newsweek. “I don’t want to pretend that it will be easy, because I think many Americans have been poisoned by the language that is used when the subject of immigration arises.”

A mother separated from her children

Tina Hamdi was 3-years-old when her parents brought her and her sister to the U.S. from Morocco, and the family put roots down in Ohio. Tina Hamdi, 31, was deported from the U.S. to Morocco in 2017. She has spent the past seven years building a life there while trying to get back to her two children. Her parents worked for years to gain citizenship, while Tina and her sister managed to gain legal status through DACA – the system designed to give some children of migrants legal status.

“My parents never let us feel the difference between us and the other kids, so that’s why this situation hurts so much because I never considered myself anything other than an American,” she said.

Hamdi, 31, told Newsweek that when she grew up, she got involved in a relationship which became abusive and coercive. In 2017, she was deported after being forced to take prescription drugs into a prison facility for her now ex-husband.

“There is a lot more that goes into this situation,” she said. “If it was up to me, I wouldn’t have ever done it on my own, or thought to do such things. “Given the situation I was in with my ex-husband, it was extremely stressful and hard to deal with, so I felt obligated to do what he asked of me.”

DACA status can be removed or denied for felony offenses, however.

Hamdi has not been able to see her children, aged 11 and 10, since, describing the seven years without them as painful.

The last time I saw them, it was the morning I was going away, I had a nine-month sentence, so I turned myself in for the nine months,” Hamdi added. “On that day, I thought I was going to kiss them goodbye and be able to come back home, but instead immigration took over and didn’t allow that.”

Hamdi was forced instead to make a life for herself in the home country she never imagined going back to. She now works as an English teacher in a kindergarten, but is desperate to get back to Ohio. “There are certain specific things you should be there for, and I am not there for them,” Hamdi said, adding that she had only been able to see her parents once since leaving the U.S.

Lawmakers are fighting to bring back migrants and their children who have been unfairly deported, with a new resolution which would see them return to the U.S.

“I’ve been away from my family and my kids for seven years now,” Tina Hamdi, who was sent to Morocco seven years ago, told Newsweek.

“You wouldn’t think that a country you grew up in would just up and turn its back on you for just one thing and not have an understanding of what led up to the situation, either,” Tina added, explaining that she was deported after becoming caught up in an abusive relationship.

Her hope is that the Chance to Come Home resolution, backed by the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), will allow a more nuanced approach to deportation cases, meaning that surrounding circumstances are taken into account.

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