FLORIDA — Ederson Galicia Alva and his mother Mirsy Maricela Alva López were separated again in June 2025, after federal agents stopped Alva López near Mar-a-Lago. The separation occurred despite a court settlement that banned most family separations until December 2031.
Federal agents had previously separated Ederson from his mother at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018 under the first Trump administration's family separation policy. Following the 2018 separation, Ederson was held in a government shelter in Arizona for four and a half months until lawyers intervened to reunite him with his mother. Alva López received a work permit and legal status to remain in the U.S. after a federal settlement.
After the 2025 separation, Alva López was transferred from two Florida jails to ICE custody in Louisiana, then deported to Guatemala City. Ederson traveled to Guatemala to join his mother, where he repeated fourth grade in Spanish. "I felt the very same thing I went through the first time. I was living it all over again." Alva López said.
The government has re-separated dozens of children from their families and has set a goal to deport more than 1 million people per year. Immigration officials deported individuals despite identifying them as legally exempt from removal in some cases, according to internal emails. Parents arrested or deported under current immigration enforcement operations are required to choose whether to leave their children in the U.S.
Lee Gelernt, a Civil Liberties Union attorney, said: "Not only has the government refused to acknowledge the horror of the initial separations during Trump I, but it is now detaining and deporting these same families. These children have suffered enough without re-traumatizing them." Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Lauren Bis said: "DHS complies with all court orders, even as radical NGOs shop for the most favorable forum and activist judges seek to thwart our operations. Enforcing immigration law is not optional, and every removal of an illegal alien helps restore order and reinforce the rule of law." The federal government allowed Ederson's family to return to Florida following a federal judge's order stating the government acted illegally.