Rafael Leiba was only eight years old when his mother was stabbed with a knife and died in the boy’s knee.
Shortly afterwards, his brother and sister were sent to live with his California uncle, but Rafael, or Rafa, called his brother, continued to be the ward of an orphanage in Mexico.
Now, in the story of rising tensions over immigration at the US-Mexican border, Rafa’s uncle has a difficult battle to reunite the boy with his brother and sister at Santa Ana’s uncle’s house.
The problem is that his brother was born in the United States, but Rafa was not.
“That wasn’t my choice [to be separated,]”Rapha told the Times through an interpreter. “I didn’t want to separate. My brother and I would live together forever and they could cross the border, not me.”
It has been almost two years since Melanie Leiba, now 13, and her 15-year-old brother Eddie Leiba last saw Rafa. While Melanie and Eddie live with their uncle Jesus Leiba, 11-year-old Rafa lives in an orphanage in Baja, California, about 10 miles northwest of Ensenada.
Rafa’s mental and physical state has declined so much that he began cultivating gray hair chains. In an interview, Jesus Leiva said that the children grew up in a world marked by violence and witnessed their father physically abuse their mother.
On the morning of September 28, 2022, at her home in Michoacan, Mexico, parents just turned into something that looked like another argument, according to police reports from children and authorities.
Jesus Leiba and his nephew Raphael outside an orphanage in Mexico in early January.
(Jesus Leiba)
However, when the fight became violent, the mother told the children to wear shoes immediately. According to Jesus Leiba, she had enough and was finally about to leave her father.
But before they could escape, the father grabbed a knife and stabbed his mother in the throat forward. She dies at Rafa’s knee while his brother runs for help.
After the father was arrested, the children were temporarily living with friends from Mexican family, but according to Jesus Leiba, they began to show signs of negligence. Also, due to the high crime rates in Michoacan, it was not safe for them.
Due to their birthright citizenship, Eddie and Melanie were able to move in with their uncle in March 2023.
Meanwhile, Rafa had to fall behind Mexico. There, according to court documents, the father was eventually convicted of murder and sentenced to 23 years in prison.
According to an application reviewed by The Times, in April 2023, Jesusleiba filed a request for “humanitarian parole” on Rafa’s behalf.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency under the Department of Homeland Security, discretionally grants temporary parole to those who are not permitted or are not permitted to grant parole on “urgent humanitarian or important public interest reasons.”
Citing the brutal violence in Michoacan, where Rafa still lived at the time, and the fact that he has no family to take care of him in Mexico, Leiba said he intends to apply for the status of a special immigrant juvenile. If approved, it gives Rafa a green card based on being a child who has been abused, abandoned or ignored by his parents.
“In addition, Raphael’s brothers, Eddie and Melanie, already live with me, and they attend school,” writes Leiba. “My wife and I help them feel safe. We are looking for psychological services for both of them. Raphael is the youngest and Eddie and Melanie miss him. The three of them need to be together as soon as possible.”
As the family awaited an answer from the Department of Homeland Security, Rafa was moved to Orphanatrio Estate 29, an orphanage in the town of San Antonio de Las Minas, near Ensenada.
When Rafa arrived in October 2023, he was suffering from respiratory problems caused by post-traumatic stress disorder, allergies, nightmares and insomnia, according to a psychological assessment written by an orphanage therapist. Rafa had difficulty breathing and stopped talking for a long time.
In her report, the therapist highlighted the benefits of Rafa moving in with his uncle: better psychological care and support from his family.
“As long as his uncle can provide the security and support he needs, Raphael will benefit from reuniting with his brother and sister,” the report said. “There is a great benefit to finding a psychologist based in the US, specializing in severe childhood post-traumatic stress disorder. This is a speciality that is not available where he currently lives.”
Rafael Leiba stands outside Orfanatrio Estate 29, an orphanage in the town of San Antonio de las Minas, where he lives.
(Jesus Martinez Leiba)
February 7, 2024 – Nearly 10 months after Leiba submitted the application – The Department of Homeland Security has notified him that it has been denied. The agency wrote that the application “failed to establish humanitarian reasons or serious public interest,” according to a denial reviewed by the Times.
Melanie and Eddie were devastated by the news, Leiba said. The trauma of losing their parents and being separated from Rafa is struggling with them. Sometimes they look happy, but then they start crying.
“It’s very difficult because it was so traumatic to see,” Leiba said. “Rapha is even worse, [some of] His hair turned gray at age 10 due to all the trauma and stress. He lost his ability to speak and we hardly understood what he was saying. ”
A Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman said the agency had not commented on individual immigration cases due to privacy concerns.
Leiba began trying to recruit Rafa, but it could take up to two years for a boy who works as a locker room attendant at the Orange County County Club to be able to move to Revia, USA.
The employee, who has worked in Citizenship and Immigration Services for nearly 30 years, spoke to the times on the condition of anonymity as he is not permitted to speak to the media. She said granting humanitarian parole is at the discretion of the officer looking at the application. This means that decisions vary from officer to officer.
So she said the agency wouldn’t need to provide a specific reason to refuse the application.
The employee said she approved his application based on the facts of Rafa’s case.
“I’d paroe him because it’s based on family unity,” she said. “He was a child and saw his mother being murdered.”
Although Rafa’s application was denied under the Biden administration, employees said Trump’s presidency could make the humanitarian parole process even more difficult for others.
A more liberal administration may instruct federal employees to interpret “urgent humanitarian reasons” in a more generous way, but she assumed the Trump administration could potentially communicate to employees that such reasons did not exist.
It’s been almost two years since Melanie Leiba and her older brother Eddie Leiba last saw her brother Rafael Leiba in person.
(Robert Gautier/Los Angeles Times)
Sonja Brown, executive director of Nightlight Christian Adoptions, an adoption agency that has been consulting with Leyva about the Rafa incident, said it usually takes about two years to adopt a Mexican child. First, the US government must approve of uncles and adopt the child, and then make sure there is no other person in Mexico who can take care of Rafa.
“The child already lives in an orphanage, which is a good place to get started, as you may already know he is eligible to be adopted,” Brown said.
Rafa must stay in Mexico throughout the adoption process and there are steps that need to be followed closely. Otherwise, the case could be thrown away. Rafa’s father must either voluntarily renounce his parental rights or be stripped by a judge before adopting the child.
“It’s particularly complicated in Mexico and this is a child, so adoption is the best way to legally take over a child,” she added.
In early January, Leiba headed to the orphanage to visit Rafa.
Rafa still has hopes to move to the US, where he is in touch with his brothers through video calls, but he is eager to be reunited with them physically and forever.
“We were playing together,” he said. “We lived in a small village and went to the river almost every day. We were always there together.”
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