Pramila Jayapal

U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington is introducing new legislation named for a 3-year-old boy who was killed after being separated from his mother during federal immigration enforcement.

Jayapal, the ranking member of the House subcommittee on Immigration, Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, announced she is introducing Orlin’s Law, named for Orlin Hernandez Reyes.

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Jayapal’s office says Orlin was murdered after his mother, Wendy Hernandez Reyes, was deported and he was sent to live with a violent uncle, despite her request to Immigration and Customs Enforcement that her son be deported with her.

“Orlin was violently assaulted and killed after ICE took him from his mother — an immigrant with no criminal record who was picked up on her way to work. There are no words to express the outrage and heartbreak that we should all feel for this three-year-old boy,” Jayapal said. “There will never be justice for his family, because we cannot bring Orlin back. We can, though, in his memory demand that this never happen again, and ensure that the children of immigrants and immigrant families are protected and kept together.”

Wendy Hernandez Reyes said she pleaded with officers not to separate her from her son.

“I begged them not to take me without my son,” she said. “I told the officers Orlin was just a baby, that I would go wherever they sent me, as long as he came too. They didn't listen. Just weeks later, Orlin was gone. No child should die alone because no one stopped to ask what would happen to them after their mother was taken away. I'm supporting Orlin's Law because I don't want another parent to endure the pain I have suffered. Nothing will bring Orlin back, but I hope his story can help save another child's life.”

Her attorney, Shalyn Fluharty of Lee & Godshall-Bennett, LLP, said the outcome was preventable.

“Wendy did the one thing a mother in that moment could do: she begged ICE officers to keep her with her son,” Fluharty said. “Instead, she was deported alone, and Orlin was left with someone who would later kill him. This was not an unavoidable tragedy. It was the foreseeable consequence of separating a young child from his mother. Orlin's Law will help ensure that families are not needlessly separated, that parents have the opportunity to make decisions about their children's care if detained, and that no parent is deported without their child if they want to remain together. We owe that to Orlin, and to every child whose safety depends on the decisions our government makes.”

Jayapal’s office said she worked closely with DHS officials to ensure Hernandez Reyes could return to the United States for Orlin’s funeral.

Jayapal is also demanding answers from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and ICE Acting Director David Venturella, saying children continue to be separated from their parents.

The notes say that at the time of Orlin’s death, then-acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons alleged that Wendy Hernandez Reyes had abandoned her son and “chose to leave her son here with a violent murderer.” Jayapal’s office says that assertion is contradicted by court records and Hernandez Reyes’s account.

According to Jayapal’s office, Orlin’s Law would promote family unity and preserve parental rights by preventing ICE from detaining parents and primary caregivers unless the agency can show, through clear and convincing evidence, that the person poses a specific risk to public safety that cannot be mitigated through placement in a supervised release program.

For parents who are not released, the bill would establish an Office of Detained Parent Coordination to ensure detained parents’ rights are respected. It would also require ICE to give parents every opportunity to make custody decisions for their child and to facilitate their participation in proceedings involving their child.

The proposal would also prevent ICE from deporting parents without their child if they wish to take their child with them.

“We commend Representative Jayapal for introducing Orlin’s Law to ensure that families are not needlessly separated due to immigration enforcement and that parents are able to make decisions about what happens to their children,” said Wendy Cervantes, director of immigration and immigrant families of the Center for Law and Social Policy and director of the Children Thrive Action Network.

“The bottom line is that Orlin should never have been separated from his loving mother, and no child should live in fear of losing a parent. Children have suffered some of the direst consequences of the Trump Administration’s reckless mass deportation campaign, including CLASP's research that documents how our youngest kids are having their childhoods taken away, with the terror spreading across entire communities. We call on Congress to pass Orlin's Law to mitigate the harm of immigration raids on children and to hold the Administration accountable by demanding that the Department of Homeland Security release comprehensive data on the number of children impacted by immigration enforcement and to follow its own policy to ensure detained parents can make decisions about their children’s care," Cervantes continued.

“Family separation did not end when the Trump administration's border policy was struck down, it simply changed form. Under today's mass deportation agenda, ICE is tearing young children from their parents, leaving them alone with no one to advocate on their behalf,” said Sarah Mehta, deputy director for policy and government affairs for immigration at the American Civil Liberties Union.

Jayapal is joined in introducing the bill by Reps. Nanette Barragán of California, André Carson of Indiana, Greg Casar of Texas, Judy Chu of California, J. Luis Correa of California, Jasmine Crockett of Texas, Danny K. Davis of Illinois, Mark DeSaulnier of California, Maxine Dexter of Oregon, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Jesús “Chuy” García of Illinois, Dan Goldman of New York, Henry C. “Hank” Johnson Jr. of Georgia, Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, Ted W. Lieu of California, James P. McGovern of Massachusetts, Analilia Mejia of New Jersey, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Lateefah Simon of California, Adam Smith of Washington, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Paul D. Tonko of New York, Nydia M. Velázquez of New York, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida.