I had a signed authorization
to act as Anna's attorney,
so I rushed over to the port of entry
to see if I could speak with my client.
Not only would CBP officials
not let me speak to Anna,
but they wouldn't even tell me
if she was there.
I went from supervisor to supervisor,
begging to submit evidence
of Anna's son's special needs,
but no one would even
talk to me about the case.
It felt surreal to watch
the shoppers strolling idly by
what felt like a life-and-death situation.
After several hours
of being stonewalled by CBP,
I left.
Several days later,
I found Anna's son
in the foster-care system.
But I didn't know what happened to Anna
until over a week later,
when she turned up
at a detention camp a few miles east.
Now, Anna didn't have a criminal record,
and she followed the law
when asking for asylum.
Still, immigration officials
held her for three more months,
until we could win her release