Asylum-seeker Albertina Contreras Teletor and her 12-year-old daughter Yakelin are excited to be Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley’s guests at Tuesday evening’s State of the Union address in the nation’s capital. “I’m so happy for the opportunity that they’re giving us,”Albertina said.“It’s just felt so different from all of the pain that we’ve suffered.” Last year, Albertina and Yakelin were torn apart at the southern border for nearly two months under Donald Trump’s barbaric “zero tolerance” policy.
When Albertina and other moms were released from custody and sent to the non-profit Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, they assumed their children would be there waiting. They weren’t. “That was one of the worst things that I think happened all summer,” said Annunciation House’s Taylor Levy. “They were just so excited, thinking that they were gonna see their children any minute.” Yakelin would not be located and released for another month.
In video of their reunion, the girl is clutching a stuffed toy and flowers as well-wishers sing “Welcome, Yakelin” in Spanish. She waves to the crowd but quickly becomes overwhelmed. She places her head on her mom’s shoulder and cries. Albertina rubs her shoulder and whispers to her as their supporters continuing serenading them. “My life is more normal now,” Yakelin says.
“I live with my mom and do things like a normal kid,” she continues. “I like playing soccer with my friends here and going to school; my favorite classes are social studies and history and science. I am learning English bit by bit and hope to someday work in a bank. I want to travel everywhere and get to know the rest of the United States.”
The two are ending one fight as they begin a separate fight to permanently stay here. Right now, Yakelin is just excited to be in Washington, D.C., where she will also celebrate her birthday. “I just feel so happy to have this big opportunity, to be so little and actually meet a senator!” Albertina will also get to meet a senator, but she also has a message for the president that separated her and her daughter in the first place: “Don’t keep telling us that we are lesser, because we are all equal.”