During an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, June 27, 2018, in Evanston, Illinois, Lidia Karine Souza, who is seeking asylum from Brazil, sheds a tear as she talks about the ordeal she has lived in searching for and finally seeing her son for the first time on Tuesday. It took Souza weeks to find Diogo after he was taken from her at the Texas border in late May and sent by the government to a Chicago shelter. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
CHICAGO — A Brazilian mother is heading to court to demand for her son’s release from United States government custody after the two were separated at the Texas border a month ago.
Lidia Karine Souza filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the Trump administration in US District Court in Chicago.
Her lawyers said they are going forward despite a federal judge’s order on Tuesday forcing the government to reunite immigrant families separated under a zero-tolerance policy within 30 days.
In this Tuesday, June 26, 2018 photo provided by paralegal Luana Mazon, Lidia Karine Souza, 27, hugs her 9-year-old son Diogo De Olivera Filho as Souza visited her son for the first time since they were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border in late May. Her son remained in custody, much of it quarantined in a room because he had the chicken pox, and she has been told the soonest the boy could be released is late July. She filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration. An emergency hearing is scheduled for Thursday. (Courtesy of Luana Mazon via AP)
Souza said she spent weeks trying to regain custody of her son, Diogo. He was taken from her last May 30 after she asked for asylum. Diogo was sent to a shelter in Chicago while his mother was detained in Texas.
Souza was released from detention last June 9. /kga