Mother, son separated at US border reunited in Chicago

Sirley Silveira Paixao, an immigrant from Brazil seeking asylum, kisses her 10-year-old son Diego Magalhaes, after Diego was released from immigration detention, Thursday, July 5, 2018, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

CHICAGO — A Brazilian woman separated from her son in May while seeking asylum in the United States has been reunited with the 10-year-old boy in Chicago.

The reunion occurred Thursday afternoon, just hours after a federal judge ordered the US government to release the boy to his mother.

The mother, Sirley Silveira Paixao, cried as Judge Manish Shah said they should be promptly reunited.

The 30-year-old woman could not stop smiling after the hearing. Through an interpreter, she said she was “very happy” and would never let her son, Diego, leave her side.

The order came shortly after Shah reunited another Brazilian family. He mulled his decision in the other case for hours, but he took just minutes Thursday, noting no one questioned the mother’s fitness to care for her child.              /kga