When family separations began under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, widespread rumors circulated that some separated children could end up being adopted by families in the United States – without their deported parents even being notified. California-based investigative reporters Garance Burke, San Francisco, and Martha Mendoza, San Jose, set out to learn if this was true and eventually uncovered the case of 5-year-old Alexa Flores, exposing holes in the U.S. legal system that could allow deported mothers and fathers to lose their children.
By the time Alexa was reunited with her mother in El Salvador in February 2017, she had spent more than a third of her short life away from her family. She had forgotten her native Spanish, and closely bonded with her Michigan foster family. Fearing Alexa would be abused if returned to her mother, the foster family obtained temporary guardianship of the girl – something federal officials say is not supposed to happen.
Alexa’s story illustrates the fate that could await some of the hundreds of children who remain in federal custody after being separated from their parents at the border. Burke and Mendoza’s reporting – which included sifting through hundreds of court records and dozens of interviews with immigrants, attorneys, and advocates in the U.S. and Central America – revealed how migrant children can become cloaked in the maze of state and federal courts, which are rarely in contact with each other. Burke and Mendoza also were able to report that nine of the 500 migrant children assigned to a Michigan-based adoption and foster agency have been adopted by U.S. families since the 1980s.
Work on the story began in June when zero tolerance was still tearing apart families at the U.S.-Mexico border. For weeks, the pair chased tips. The breakthrough came in August, when Burke and Mendoza learned Alexa’s name. After calls to dozens of courthouses, they were able to review records revealing her foster parents’ initially successful attempt to win full custody of the girl.
After chasing tips for weeks, Burke and Mendoza learned Alexa’s name. They then called dozens of courthouses to find records of her foster parents’ initially successful attempt to win full custody of the girl.
The reporters then split up, with Burke heading to Michigan – working with Detroit-based videojournalist Mike Householder and photographer Paul Sancya – to interview the foster agency, meet with Alexa’s former foster parents and watch video footage from a brief, pivotal guardianship hearing that the AP negotiated to have released for public viewing. Mendoza worked with a multiformat team in San Miguel, El Salvador, to interview Alexa and her mother, Araceli Ramos Bonilla. Video and images shot by El Salvador videojournalist David Barraza and Mexico City-based photographer Rebecca Blackwell showed mother and daughter happily reunited.
Araceli Ramos, with her five-year-old daughter, Alexa, peering over her shoulder, looks through Facebook pictures posted by Alexa's former Michigan foster family, during an interview in a park in San Miguel, El Salvador, Aug. 18, 2018. Kory Barr, a physical therapist in Michigan, and his wife Sherri, who ran a home-organization business, had three daughters who were raised in a devout home and already had fostered two Salvadoran sisters in 2013.
AP Photo / Rebecca Blackwell
During an interview in San Miguel, El Salvador, Aug. 18, 2018, Araceli Ramos sheds a tear as she describes her battle to be reunited with her 5-year-old daughter, Alexa. In Ramos’ darkest days, she would lay on her bed, stare at the ceiling and sob, her hand on her stomach. “This girl, she was here, in my womb," she said. "We are meant to be together. Always.”
AP Photo / Rebecca Blackwell
Five-year-old Alexa wears shoes depicting characters from Disney's “Frozen” movie as she and her mother Araceli Ramos meet with AP journalists in a park in San Miguel, El Salvador, Aug. 18, 2018.
AP Photo / Rebecca Blackwell
Traffic drives along a commercial avenue in San Miguel, El Salvador, Aug. 18, 2018. More than 26,000 people were deported from the U.S. and Mexico to this Central American country last year.
AP Photo / Rebecca Blackwell
Araceli Ramos walks with her five-year-old daughter, Alexa, in a park in San Miguel, El Salvador, Aug. 18, 2018. The federal government offers all deported parents the chance to take their children with them, but Ramos said she was ordered to sign a waiver to leave Alexa behind. "The agent put his hand on mine, he held my hand, he forced me to sign," she said.
AP Photo / Rebecca Blackwell
Bethany Christian Services in Grand Rapids, Mich., Aug. 23, 2018. Bethany is one of the nation’s largest adoption agencies.
AP Photo / Paul Sancya
Chris Palusky, president and CEO of Bethany Christian Services, one of the nation’s largest adoption agencies, explains their long-term foster care program from their headquarters in Grand Rapids, Mich., Aug. 23, 2018. “We never want families to be separated,” Palusky said. “That’s what we’re about, is bringing families together.”
AP Photo / Paul Sancya
Sarah Zuidema, a former Bethany Christian Services supervisor, poses in Grand Rapids, Mich., Aug. 24, 2018. Several former Bethany social workers said that as the agency started receiving more Central American children, they were encouraged to recruit new foster families from the agency’s traditional base, the Christian Reformed Church, and other local churches.
AP Photo / Paul Sancya
Five-year-old Alexa peers over the back of her chair as her mother, Araceli Ramos, speaks during an interview in San Miguel, El Salvador, Aug. 18, 2018. Returning to El Salvador in February 2017, Alexa had lost all her Spanish and spoke English to her mother, using words like “water” and “chicken.” Ramos, who spoke almost no English herself, had to point to pictures or call friends to translate.
AP Photo / Rebecca Blackwell
Five-year-old Alexa laughs with her mother, Araceli Ramos, while riding a merry-go-round at a park in San Miguel, El Salvador, Aug. 18, 2018. Ramos scraped together $6,000 to pay a smuggler who could help her reach the United States. On the month-long, 1,500-mile pilgrimage, she carried Alexa, a change of clothes, diapers, cookies, juice and water.
AP Photo / Rebecca Blackwell
The Chaparrastique volcano looms in the distance as people begin their day in a market area of central San Miguel, El Salvador, Aug. 19, 2018. The smallest country in Central America, El Salvador is home to 6.3 million people. More than a million Salvadorans live in the U.S. where they’ve immigrated to flee violence or seek economic opportunity.
AP Photo / Rebecca Blackwell
It was the all-formats telling of the story of Alexa and her mother, Araceli Ramos Bonilla, that captivated readers and stoked their anger over the case, including MSNBC host Chris Hayes, celebrities J.K. Rowling and Alyssa Milano, and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, who tweeted it was “... every parent’s nightmare.” The story hovered near the top of the AP report in reader engagement for three days and prompted 100,000 interactions on Facebook and tens of thousands of tweets. A social promo video created by Mexico City digital producer Dario Lopez has been viewed 45,000 times.
The strong reporting and visuals impressed the judges, one of whom called it the “most personal view of the (separation) story that I've ever read.” Another noted that Alexa’s tale “moves the separation story forward when it was falling off the radar.” It is indeed back on the radar, with lawmakers now asking for more details and talking about instituting steps to prevent a repeat of Alexa’s case.
For producing a complex, powerful story that spanned two countries in heartbreakingly human terms, Burke, Mendoza, Lopez, Blackwell, Sancya, Householder and Barraza win this week’s Best of the Week.