Help Reunite Ixcell Perez With Her Mother

UPDATE:
Dalia was stranded on the border and separated from Ixcell for four long months. Broad coverage in both US and international media – and YOUR emails – helped get her across the border. As Ixcell begins a new round of cancer treatments, her mother is at her bedside.
YOUR SOLIDARITY MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE.

Ixcell Perez is a 14-year-old United States citizen suffering from leukemia. She was living in Chiapas, Mexico when she was diagnosed. Her mother Dalia traveled to the US border at San Ysidro and was planning to take her daughter to her birthplace in Raleigh, North Carolina so she could receive live-saving medical treatment. After being detained and treated with callous disregard for two days, both Ixcell and her mother were denied entry into the US. (Read More)

Monday August 26
Raleigh News & Observer
14-year-old fights leukemia alone at Duke because her mom is stuck at the border
BY MARTHA QUILLIN
AUGUST 26, 2019 05:30 AM, UPDATED AUGUST 26, 2019 09:30 AM

Two Triangle-area churches, a Duke oncologist, a N.C. congressman and an immigrant advocacy group are trying to help a 14-year-old leukemia patient’s mother gain permission to come from Mexico to Durham to be with her daughter during treatment. The girl is a U.S. citizen who was born in Raleigh and has been living in Mexico since 2010. Her mother is a citizen of Mexico.

Cole Miller, founding director of Solidarity Now, which advocates for the protection of human rights on the U.S. southern border, said Dalia Perez first brought her daughter, Ixcell, from Chiapas, Mexico, to the crossing at Tijuana, Mexico, into San Diego four months ago. (Read More)

WTVD ABC 11
Teenager battles leukemia alone at Duke University Hospital because border agents will not allow mother to visit
By Josh Chapin

Flowers and cards can be sent to: Good Shepard United Church of Christ at 1050 NW Maynard Road Cary, NC 27513.

Ixcell Sandoval Perez is 14 years old. She was living in Chiapas, Mexico, when she was diagnosed.Her mother traveled to the U.S. border at San Ysidro and was planning to take her to Raleigh, where Ixcell was born, so she could receive medical treatment. But when they arrived at the border in Tijuana, Mexico, they were denied entry into the United States.

“They took everything away from us,” said Ixcell’s mother, Dalia, in a video produced by Solidarity Now, a group that advocates for the protection of human rights on the U.S. southern border. “They took us into a room. In the afternoon, they left us in a cold room but it was so cold and my daughter was feeling so sick. I pounded on the door and shouted for them to open it, but no. My child was so thirsty but no one would listen to me.” (Read More)

Tuesday August 27
NewsWeek
MOTHER WITH U.S.-BORN TEEN WITH LEUKEMIA REFUSED ENTRY AT U.S. BORDER, TOLD TO ‘PRAY TO GOD THAT HE’LL TAKE THE CANCER AWAY’
BY CHANTAL DA SILVA ON 8/27/19 AT 12:20 PM EDT

14-year-old girl born in Raleigh, North Carolina, has been left to battle leukemia at Duke University Hospital without her mother at her side, after U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents denied her mother entry into the country, reportedly telling her to try praying to god to “take the cancer away” instead. (Read More)

Good Morning America
After initial denial, mom of 14-year-old girl with leukemia granted waiver to enter US from Mexico
By Katie Kindelan

A 14-year-old girl battling leukemia will soon be reunited with her mom after a group of strangers fought to get her mother into the U.S. from Mexico to be with her during her treatment.

Dalia Lorenza Perez was granted a temporary humanitarian waiver and allowed into the U.S. on Tuesday at the San Ysidro, California, port of entry, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) official confirmed to “Good Morning America.” (Read More)

Good Morning America – Initial Report

Telemundo
Video oficial de Noticias Telemundo. La madre de una niña estadounidense con leucemia pide su permiso para entrar a EEUU y hacerse cargo de los cuidados de su hija.

New York Daily News
Leukemia-stricken teen fights for her life in North Carolina hospital while mom stays stranded in Mexico
A 14-year-old U.S. citizen traveled to North Carolina from Chiapas, Mexico with her mother for leukemia treatment four months ago, but her mother was not allowed to accompany her daughter into the country.

Instead, mom Dalia Perez told the advocacy group Solidarity Now, border patrol agents sent her back to Mexico with instructions to “pray” while a U.S. relative got her daughter Ixcell into the country and to Duke University Hospital in North Carolina, where she is from. (Read More)

Univision
Adolescente con cáncer pide a autoridades que dejen entrar a su madre mexicana a Estados Unidos “La Patrulla Fronteriza ha impedido que una madre mexicana cuide a su hija con un nivel de leucemia avanzado en Carolina del Norte”, indican organizaciones de fe.

CAROLINA DEL NORTE, Durham.-Organizaciones de fe en Durham, Cary y Raleigh alzan la voz a nombre de una adolescente nacida en Carolina del Norte que no ha podido ver a su madre a pesar de estar internada en un hospital con un nivel de cáncer avanzado y sin tener a nadie más que la cuide.

De acuerdo con las organizaciones de fe, Aduanas y Patrulla Fronteriza (CBP), en San Ysidro, han impedido que Dalia Pérez, una madre que vive en Chiapas, México, ingrese a los Estados Unidos para ver a su hija, una ciudadana estadounidense, a quien recientemente le diagnosticaron leucemia o cáncer en la sangre. (Read More)

UK Daily Mail
‘It’s not east to be here without her’: Heartbreaking moment 14-year-old American girl battling leukemia alone in hospital begs officials to allow her undocumented mother back into the US after they were separated at the border

A 14-year-old girl is hoping United States immigration officials will show her some compassion and allow her mother to be by her side while she goes through her leukemia treatment alone at a hospital in North Carolina.  

Ixcell Perez was born in Raleigh and moved with her mother to Chiapas, Mexico, where she has been living since 2010.

Acting on the advice of a doctor four months ago, Dalia Perez attempted to cross into San Diego through the Tijuana, Mexico, border crossing to save her daughter’s life. (Read More)

AABC7 Chicago
Teenager battles leukemia alone at Duke University Hospital because border agents will not allow mother to visit

“They took everything away from us,” said Ixcell’s mother, Dalia, in a video produced by Solidarity Now, a group that advocates for the protection of human rights on the U.S. southern border. “They took us into a room. In the afternoon, they left us in a cold room but it was so cold and my daughter was feeling so sick. I pounded on the door and shouted for them to open it, but no. My child was so thirsty but no one would listen to me.” (View Video)

La Noticia
Piden ayuda para unir a madre inmigrante con su hija enferma en Carolina del Norte

Ixcell Pérez es una niña de 14 años de edad nacida en Carolina del Norte, quien está luchando contra la leucemia, y sueña estar reunida con su madre Dalia, quien vive en México, pese a que las autoridades migratorias se lo han impedido en dos ocaciones. (Read More)

Wednesday August 28
Raleigh News & Observer
Mom allowed into US to be with teen daughter through leukemia treatment at Duke
By Martha Quillin

A 14-year-old girl being treated for leukemia at Duke University will be reunited with her mother Wednesday night after U.S. border officials relented and told the mother she could cross the border to be with her ailing child.

Jonathan Hahn, spokesman for Solidarity Now, a group that has been advocating for the family, said Dalia Perez of Chiapas, Mexico, got a call from an official with U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Tuesday. She was told to come to the entry point from Tijuana into San Ysidro, in San Diego, he said. She did, and was allowed to cross into the U.S. under a one-year humanitarian parole. (Read More)

WTVD ABC 11

People Magazine
By Char Adams

In a recent update, Solidarity Now indicated that Dalia has been allowed to enter the country.

Ixcell and her mother moved back to Mexico in 2010 when Dalia’s visa expired, according to KABC. Cole Miller, founding director of Solidarity Now, told GMA that Ixcell was diagnosed with leukemia last year and underwent treatment in Tapachula, Chiapas, where the family lives. (Read More)

“Dalia was stranded on the border and separated from Ixcell for four long months,” the update reads. “Broad coverage in both US and international media — and YOUR emails — helped get her across the border. She will be reunited with Ixcell soon.”

RAWSTORY
Cancer-stricken teen faces treatment in the US alone after border agents deny her mother entry
By Sky Palma

“U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is not the only agency that issues paroles and in this case, it could be appropriate for individual to reach out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and or U.S. State Department,” [CBP officials] added. (Read More)

ABC News
After initial denial, mom of 14-year-old girl with leukemia granted waiver to enter US from Mexico

“I think it’s very clear how desperately she wants her mom to be with her,” said Rev. Carla Gregg-Kearns, pastor of Good Shepherd United Church of Christ in Cary, North Carolina, who has visited Ixcell twice in the hospital. “That is really an emotionally overwhelming experience, to go through this sort of grave illness without the support of a parent.”

Gregg-Kearns’ congregation and another church in Durham also worked behind the scenes on Ixcell’s behalf, reaching out to their local congressman, Rep. David Price, for help. He sent a letter of support to the Department of Homeland Security on July 23, 2019. (Read More)

Reunification Wednesday August 28
WTVD ABC 11

Telemundo – Noticias del Medio Dia
Video oficial de Noticias Telemundo. Una joven quien llevaba cuatro meses enfrentando la enfermedad de leucemia sola logró reunirse con su madre luego de un permiso especial.

Noticias Telemundo
Una madre mexicana rogó por un permiso para entrar a EEUU a cuidar a su hija quien ha tenido que enfrentar el cáncer sin el cuidado de su mamá.

Noticias Telemundo
Una madre mexicana separada de su hija de 14 años, enferma con leucemia, al fin recibe visa humanitaria para poder cuidar de ella.

Univision
Madre e hija juntas por fin. Ganan batalla temporal contra inmigracion, ahora luchan contra el cancer

CAROLINA DEL NORTE, Durham.-Fundidas en un abrazo y con lágrimas en los ojos, una madre y su hija se reencuentran en el aeropuerto RDU de Carolina del Norte.

La madre mexicana logró ingresar a los Estados Unidos después de una travesía de meses, en los que Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza le habían negado el ingreso al país, hasta que el 27 de agosto, le concedieron una exención humanitaria temporal que permitió a Dalia Pérez viajar hasta Durham, donde su hija, Ixcell Sandoval Pérez, la recibió con los brazos abiertos. (Read More)

WRAL NBC 5