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daughter to take legal custody of her younger siblings. 151 In another case, a judge in a 2011
illegal reentry case in New Mexico gave a below-guideline sentence, noting that there was
strong evidence the defendant had returned to the United States because of reports his
children were being sexually abused. 152
In several cases, people cited fear of losing custody or seeking to regain custody of their
children as a reason they returned. Yanir Pioquinto Cruz, interviewed while serving a
Streamline sentence in Florence, Arizona, reported he had entered illegally because he
had heard that his US citizen wife, struggling with a drug addiction, had lost custody of
their five children to the child welfare system in Atlanta, Georgia. His goal had been to
keep his parental rights and return with his children to Mexico. 153 Maureen Franco, an
assistant federal defender in El Paso, recounted the case of a client who had been told by
a caseworker that if he did not come get his children, they would end up in foster care. 154
151 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Heather Williams, August 1, 2012.
152 United States v. Ledezma-Ledezma, 808 F. Supp. 2d 1301 (D. N.M. 2011)
153 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Yanir Pioquinto Cruz, April 8, 2013.
154 Human Rights Watch interview with Maureen Franco, federal public defender, El Paso, Texas, September 25, 2012. Similar
accounts were shared in Human Rights Watch interviews with Milagros Cisneros, April 2, 2013; and with Shaffy Moeel,
assistant federal defender, San Diego, California, September 5, 2012.
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