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-So, what's Ocilla like?
-Um, I mean, it's just --
It's a quiet, peaceful town.
People will tend to their business and yours, too.
[ Both laugh ]
You know, small town, population about 3,400.
Just, a lot of people are attached to farms.
We -- We take our football pretty seriously.
♪♪
We're passing the hospital here on the left.
There's Irwin County Hospital.
We're just a nice place to live, a nice place to be,
and try to keep things quiet.
And then every once in a while, something happens
that gets national attention.
And unfortunately, it's not for the nice,
laid-back quality of life we have here.
-Ocilla is a small, unassuming town
in Southern Georgia
where a nightmare scandal is unraveling.
A growing number of women say guards from an ICE facility
brought them into a local hospital, shackled,
and then a gynecologist named Dr. Mahendra Amin
gave them unneeded surgery
without first telling them or getting informed consent.
We've been investigating these allegations for months.
After an initial whistleblower complaint claimed
that Amin performed mass hysterectomies,
Congress called on three federal agencies to investigate.
To date, it's still ongoing,
and most of these women say they still don't know
what procedures they underwent and why.
This is Irwin County Detention Center.
This is where many of the women who have received
these controversial surgeries are and were detained.
I don't see any women,
but I think we should just go talk to them.
What's your sense of what's going on?
The female detainee told you that?
Oh, I see. How you doing?
-Could you guys kind of step back for me?
-Lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit
on behalf of 14 Amin patients
with sworn testimony from more than 40 women.
It alleges these gynecologic procedures
amount to sexual assault,
and the women who spoke out faced brutal retaliation.
Immigration lawyer Amelia Wilson
is one of the lead attorneys behind the lawsuit.
-A lot of women didn't know or understand
what had happened to their bodies.
There were many women who were having procedures done
that they did not need and that were invasive,
meaning that there was a surgery involved,
or they were placed under anesthesia.
And many of the women did not consent to it.
It's not that they were saying no to the procedure.
It's that no one ever explained to them what the procedure was.
-There was no informed consent. -Exactly.
Those are the main allegations,
that they were victims of crimes committed against them,
that they sought to come forward
to speak out about what had happened to them,
and as a result, they were retaliated against.
And the retaliation took multiple forms.
A lot of women were threatened with isolation, for example.
"If you're speaking out to the media,
we're going to take away your tablet
so you can't communicate with your family."
But to sever their access to their children or their families
was absolutely eviscerating for them.
-Soon after this lawsuit was filed,
ICE temporarily released all of the women who were named in it,
including a 37-year-old woman
who's now living outside of Atlanta,
We've been in touch with a woman named Mbeti Ndonga
for months now. We started talking to her
when she was still inside Irwin County Detention Center.
She's back home at her parents' house,
and we're here to check in on her.
♪♪
-These are just pictures of my -- my dad.
He coached soccer for us.
And we got acclimated to the American society
very easily.
-Mbeti came to the U.S. from Kenya as a toddler.
She had a very American childhood --
"Saved by the Bell," mac and cheese, and soccer games.
Is there a part of you that walked into the detention center
and just thought, "How am I in ICE custody right now?"
-I couldn't really believe it.
The very first time I was locked up in ICE,
it was like a surreal dungeon.
Like you walked in, and...
there was l-loud noises,
the slamming of the doors, the echoing in the halls.
-Mbeti landed in ICE custody
after her life started to spiral in her early 20s.
She wasn't being treated for schizoaffective disorder.
Her green card expired. She committed two felonies
and landed at a detention center.
Two months later, she was taken to see a doctor
for her heavy periods.
-I thought that I would be getting
a-a Depo shot,
because that's what -- That was my regimen.
That's what was prescribed by a previous doctor.
-So basically, it's -- it can act as contraception,
but it can also help with symptoms
like heavy bleeding, for instance.
-Right. -And had that worked for you
in the past? -Yeah, it worked for me.
And I don't know why the doctor didn't re-suggest it.
-In her records, Amin wrote
that Mbeti didn't respond to a Depo shot,
but the records don't show he ever tried it.
Instead, he's scheduled a dilation and curettage,
or D&C,
a medical procedure that removes tissue from the uterus.
-The nurse, she asked me if I was getting a hysterectomy.
I said, "No, ma'am, I'm getting a D&C."
She asked again.
I remember being really annoyed with her
that I had to, like, explain to myself,
"I'm not -- I'm not wanting to take out my womb.
I don't know why you're asking about a hysterectomy."
Moments before I was supposed to go under,
she asked both -- both me and -- and the other lady.
-Another detainee? -Another -- Yeah,
another detainee, if we were having hysterectomies.
-Did you turn to the other detainee next to you
and -- and say anything?
-Yeah, I mean, I was like, what did we get ourselves into?
-And so, at what point did you realize
you had actually had surgery, not just a D&C -- surgery?
-I woke up, and they said, "Be careful getting up."
And I was like -- I'm kind of like, "Why?"
And then I-I touched my body,
and I had three incisions,
one on my side,
one in my belly button, and one on my other side.
The surgery and the procedure isn't even half the story.
Later, I ended up getting a staph infection
from that procedure,
and I never got a second follow-up with doctors.
-You never had another follow-up appointment?
-I never had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Amin.
-Records show that a follow-up appointment was scheduled
for two weeks later,
but don't show whether that visit ever took place.
-♪ Season to celebrate ♪
-Then, seven weeks later,
Mbeti tested positive for a staph infection.
While Mbeti did sign some consent forms
before her surgery in August 2019,
she says she didn't understand what she was signing.
Now, a year and a half later, Mbeti still doesn't know
if she had a hysterectomy or not.
-It's just heartbreaking. You know what I'm saying? To --
And that's something she's always wanted,
just to have kids and, like, you know, to have --
So the fact that that might have been,
like, stripped away from her is -- It's heartbreaking,
and it's maddening.
And I hope that they didn't. You know what I'm saying?
I really hope that they went in there
and did the surgery they were supposed to do,
that they said they were going to do.
-You know, to be honest, I've brushed over the detail.
I remember running across an article, it was earlier in 2020,
thinking, "Wow, that's horrible."
But then actually finding out that my sister is involved,
I don't want to know the details,
because, as her little brother, you feel --
You know, the more information I learn about it,
the angrier I get.
♪♪
-What has been your greatest fear?
-Not being able to do what a normal mother does,
you know? Have children,
watch them grow, and...
I mean, that's a very sacred thing,
and I-I feel like it's been kind of
threatened, immensely.
-After Mbeti and countless other women
suffered what they consider medical torture,
they felt the worst had to be over,
until the week of the U.S. presidential election,
when they suddenly faced their worst fear.
While the world was transfixed
by the most heated political contest in generations,
ICE began quietly scheduling these women for deportation
before many of them had testified,
something Congress specifically told ICE not to do.
Yanira Oldaker was brought to the U.S.
when she was just 3 years old.
She says when she saw Amin,
he gave her a transvaginal ultrasound.
She says she was rough and caused her pain
and that she bled for days afterward.
After this call, Yanira became one of the women
that was temporarily released
as part of the class-action lawsuit.
She's the lead plaintiff.
You and your team were working overnight.
I mean, racing against the clock,
while Yanira, meanwhile, was put in a bus
and was on the way to her deportation flight.
-That's exactly right. The team worked without stop.
We were just like, "We have to get something,
like a stay of removal,
temporary restraining order, anything we can."
We got in touch with her deportation officer,
and he said that her removal had been stopped.
-When ICE does something like that, I mean,
how does it affect a federal investigation
when these are potential key witnesses?
-ICE has a policy to not remove people
who are part of an investigation.
But we also know that during the Trump years,
that policy was not really followed.
I mean, we know even based on our experience with Mbeti,
when I spoke to ICE and said she is a victim, "A,"
"B," she is a witness, and, "C," she's a potential plaintiff.
Why are you removing her?
The response from ICE was, "Our job is to remove people."
-ICE denies any allegation
that they attempted to impede the investigation
by deporting women.
The only thing protecting Mbeti from immediate deportation
at this point is the ongoing litigation.
And so far,
the Biden administration hasn't intervened.
Are you concerned that if her protections are lifted,
that she could be deported?
-100%, because just before this litigation really took off,
she was at imminent risk of removal.
-I just don't want her to go away again.
I don't want her to be locked in a cage.
I don't want her to be alone in Kenya.
Feeling that Mbeti was, like, isolated
and feeling like she was going through this by herself,
that's the worst.
-For me, it was -- It was, uh --
It was pretty good having both my kids here.
-Mm-hmm.
-She sang ABCs to my son for...
long time on the phone,
so to have that in person and my daughter also be a part of that
was --
[ Sighs ]
Ah, man. I'm sorry, guys.
My children mean the world to me,
so it's good to see them happy
and experience something with their aunt, you know?
And every day since has been great.
-We've spoken with women in six different countries,
from Jamaica to El Salvador to Canada,
who were deported after seeing Amin.
Some of them still haven't been contacted
by federal investigators,
begging the question, just how many women are out there?
Why is it hard to know exactly how many women
have been affected?
-We're talking about a deportation machine
or conveyor belt.
So all these women who came through the detention center
and saw this doctor is almost incalculable.
-We tracked down a woman named Yuridia
who was deported just three days after she had surgery by Amin
in August 2020.
She's a single mom of six young daughters and, like many others,
hasn't been contacted to testify in the federal investigation.
-Okay.
Sí.
[ Speaking Spanish ]
-Once Yuridia arrived in the U.S.,
she found work and started a family.
But soon after, her partner became abusive,
leading to a series of domestic violence incidents.
In one altercation, Yuridia ran to the neighbor's house.
They called the police.
When they arrived, Yuridia was arrested.
Her partner was not.
Her daughters, all U.S. citizens,
were eventually picked up by her sister
and brought to Mexico.
What was your first memory
of walking into Irwin County Detention Center?
Why did you originally see the doctor when you were there?
So you reported that you had rib pain.
I guess, like, how did that get you to the gynecologist?
Yuridia says at her next appointment,
she was told she would have to have surgery.
I have your -- some of your medical records here.
When you first went to see Dr. Amin, did you have --
and I'm listing the symptoms
that are -- that are listed here --
Did you have chronic pelvic pain?
The second diagnosis that he has here is a medical term
that means basically that you had a very heavy period
that lasted longer than normal. Is that true?
The next one is that -- It's a medical term
for -- for pain during menstruation.
Like not more than usual
or not -- nothing out of the ordinary.
-[ Speaks Spanish ] -[ Chuckles ]
-In the last six months, Yuridia's attorneys have been
working to overturn her immigration case,
which would allow her to return to the U.S. with her daughters
and fight for a chance at a green card.
While legal precedent shows the chance of her making it back
is very slim, her lawyer is confident
that she has a shot.
-[ Chuckles ]
♪♪
-Aah!
-This story became the target of intense political debate,
with Democrats calling for ICE to halt deportations
and Republicans calling into question the allegations.
-The AP's review did not find evidence of mass hysterectomies.
-A team of the country's top OB-GYNs
determined that while they did not find
that Amin performed mass hysterectomies,
he did perform numerous unneeded gynecologic procedures.
They reviewed more than 3,000 pages of medical records
for 19 women who saw him
and presented their findings to Congress.
So, you were part of the independent medical review team.
What did you find?
-One of the first patterns that we saw
was just basically overly aggressive,
sometimes un-indicated care.
And sometimes, that did involve procedures,
as well as surgical procedures,
so, in-office procedures like transvaginal ultrasounds
that, you know, weren't really indicated,
as well as even surgical procedures
like laparoscopic procedures that weren't always indicated.
-You say it wasn't indicated. Does that mean
there was no medical reason? It wasn't medically necessary?
-Correct. So, not medically necessary.
Any time you take a woman to the operating room
and perform a surgery, there's risks.
You can have bleeding, infections,
damage to nearby organs like the bladder or the bowel,
damage to nerves, surgical site infections, pain.
Another more disturbing thing that we saw
was just lack of providing informed consent.
We talk about informed consent a lot,
and sometimes, it is diminished
to just signing a piece of paper.
But the actual consent process involves an understanding
and a discussion between the patient and the physician.
We didn't see evidence of that.
-When you learned the Dr. Amin wasn't board-certified
and was doing these surgeries
contracted by the federal government,
did it surprise you?
-It did.
-And why is that?
-For a vulnerable population of women,
I would think that our government
would be providing them with appropriate care.
I am concerned when I hear
that this doctor was not board-certified,
because I don't think that that would be a premier doctor
for a woman to be seeing.
-In a series of statements, Amin denied all wrongdoing.
He and his lawyer declined multiple requests
for an interview, citing ongoing litigation.
One of the independent doctors
said it's possible Amin saved a patient's life.
Dr. Amin's lawyer, in a statement that he sent us,
he said that the records that you all had access to
to do this review were severely incomplete at best.
He said that because of that,
the review couldn't have been conclusive or accurate.
What is your response to that?
-Well, yeah, I would certainly
love to see more medical records,
but from the medical records that we did have,
we were able to come up with the conclusion.
So I don't think any amount of medical records
would corroborate medical necessity
for many of these procedures that were performed.
But I would welcome seeing and reviewing
a complete medical record for these women.
♪♪
-A group of independent doctors has been reviewing
a lot of the medical records of these female patients.
And they say the linchpin of this investigation
are the pathology reports.
We've tracked down the pathologist's courier,
who also happens to be the pathologist's daughter.
She had a lot of insights on how this whole operation works,
because she is the person who picks up the specimens
from Dr. Amin's hospital
and transports them to her father's lab.
-We are going to Irwin County Hospital in Ocilla, Georgia,
and that's where I pick up specimens.
And I bring those back to Crisp County Hospital
for Dr. Latham to look at and diagnose.
And then we send those diagnoses
back to Irwin County Hospital patients.
-We reached out to a number of medical professionals
who were in some way involved with these surgeries
or specimens.
Arden Latham was the only one who agreed to talk to us.
The specimens she transfers
are from general population and detainee patients.
You get to the hospital. -Yes.
-And then what do you do? -So, I'd walk over there
and go into the lab at that point.
And they have all the specimens out for me.
I just take the bags, and as I put each jar,
each bag in the bucket, I, you know,
mark off a list and initial that patient's paperwork.
-Right, so you're just verifying,
"Yes, I have this organ." -Yes.
-"Yes, I have this cyst." -Yes.
-On an average week, and I know it's different week to week,
what are you picking up?
-Ovarian cysts, ovaries, sometimes,
fallopian tubes,
any kind of tumor or cyst that has to do with,
you know, the female reproductive system.
-Is that consistently for the last couple years?
-Yeah, pretty much. -But when looking at the names
and when checking off, you know, each patient,
did you ever notice, I don't know,
any kind of pattern that seemed unusual?
-There are a lot of Spanish names.
A lot of that, you know, can come with the area,
but it does seem a little bit disproportionate
for the entire population of Ocilla,
demographically speaking.
-At what point did you start to piece together
why you were seeing so many Hispanic names?
-Um, not until recently,
'cause I didn't -- I didn't really know
that there was an ICE facility until like a month ago or so.
-Wow. -Yeah, it's total news to me.
So once I -- once I heard that there was an ICE facility,
I was like, "That's why there are so many Hispanic names."
But before that, I had never known why.
-When Arden brings the specimens to the lab,
her dad then decides whether the tissues are cancerous
or otherwise need to be removed.
Was there a disconnect at times
between what Dr. Amin's diagnosis was
and what your father was able to discover or not discover?
-I think definitely there was sometimes a, you know,
"I'm not finding this." And, um --
And -- You know, and again, there was a question of whether
a removal was needed or not. So there was always a question
of whether he was overzealous in that realm.
-And those were conversations that, I mean,
you guys were having before this story became national news.
-Oh, yes, absolutely.
-When this story came up,
did you sort of feel the weight of the types of specimens
that you were transporting?
-If you're used to the same thing
over and over and over again, you don't think about it.
There's no, like, depth of thought of --
I mean, like, I knew that I had to drive safely and carefully
so that I don't, like, spill anything.
So that does change, you know, when you think of,
what if the -- What if this person didn't want this done?
And what if this is something
that someone now is traumatized over,
and I'm just driving it around?
-Why are you doing this interview now?
-Um, I think it's the right thing to do.
Ocilla being so heavily Caucasian and so rural
and in the the Deep South, essentially,
um, the political opinion of immigrants
is very, very negative.
There's a tendency to forget that people are human beings.
And I just want to do what I can to help justice be served.
♪♪
-Was there anything that you learned
from seeing the pathology reports
that allowed you to -- to draw certain conclusions or findings?
-I mean, the pathology reports just corroborated the fact
that procedures were being done that were un-indicated --
so, for example, the description of a simple ovarian cyst
at the time of a laparoscopic procedure.
Really no alarm bells that this could be a precancer.
And removing it and sending it to pathology,
it's corroborated that it's a follicular cyst.
So this is a normal portion of someone's ovary
that did not need to be removed.
-We reached out to Arden's parents for an interview.
They refused to comment. And Amin's lawyer
didn't respond to questions about Arden's account.
But when we visited the 3,000-person town of Ocilla,
people were anxious to defend their hometown doctor.
The mayor of Ocilla, Matt Seale, invited us to his local cafe
with the hopes of shining a positive light on his town.
How did the community here react
when this became, you know, a national story?
-I mean, obviously, it was very provocative.
So people were asking questions.
But the sense I got was that folks were immediately skeptical
and just very unsure about, you know, "What's all this about?
This doesn't sound right."
The way things kind of get painted,
it was as if there's some kind of dungeon
in the basement of the detention center,
and we're just lining people up
and doing God-awful things to them.
-We have talked to many other women who have said
they did have procedures done
that they felt weren't consensual
and they felt were not necessary.
-And I would just say
if there's any kind of allegation like that --
I mean, any kind of allegation of that -- of that kind
should be taken seriously, should be investigated.
I mean, I wouldn't -- Again,
and I don't think there's any kind of,
"Oh, well, this may have happened.
Let's sweep it under the rug."
That's -- That's not the attitude
of anybody in this community.
But that's -- that's a far cry from mass hysterectomies
and the claims of things happening
actually at the detention center.
But we as a community probably know him a little better
than -- than people from the outside coming in,
no offense, with cameras
and asking, you know, tough questions.
"Oh, these allegations, we need to -- We need to dig into this."
Well, the people that supported him
were the people that knew him best,
the people that he delivered their babies.
♪♪
-Someone directed us to a Facebook page
called "We Stand With Mahendra Amin,"
which is fascinating. Look at this.
There are two pregnant women here.
They're wearing T-shirts that say,
"We stand with Dr. Mahendra Amin."
There are more than 1,500 people
who are following it, who like this page.
There are only 10,000 people in this county.
♪♪
-He delivered two of my grandkids.
-How did the community react
when -- when he was accused of -- of all this?
-Well, a lot of people, they didn't believe it anyway.
They still go to him, you know, like my daughter.
She had heard it, and she didn't believe it,
'cause, you know, she still went to him.
-So he didn't really lose any patients or --
-No.
-You guys have this sort of national scandal
that just landed in your small town.
What are your thoughts? -People that was accusing him
was of -- of Latino,
which, there's nothing wrong with that right there,
but I don't know if they misunderstand him
communication-wise.
Far as I know, I've never
heard anybody say anything bad about Dr. Amin.
He's a good baby doctor and --
-Would you, you know, be open to the idea
that maybe Dr. Amin has done great things for families here
in delivering babies
and treating them well... -He has, he has.
-...but then also has maybe done some unethical things, as well?
-If he has, I-I-I had never heard of it, seen it,
or I-I --
I'd have to see it to believe it.
♪♪
[ Door bells jingle ] -Thank you.
-Why do you not believe the allegations?
-You don't hear anybody else that's not in the prison
saying anything. I think --
I don't -- would still believe that.
-What would be, like, the incentive
for somebody to say this if it wasn't true?
-To make money. To get money.
To get their 15 minutes of fame.
I just -- I just think it's all made-up.
-Mayor Matt, as the town calls him,
isn't surprised by the support. He says Irwin County Hospital
was at risk of going under, and Amin basically saved it.
-He may quite literally have kept our hospital open
when others around us are closing,
mostly through delivering babies, like I said.
So I think that's why you saw the groundswell of support.
People who knew him knew the truth.
-But lawyers for the plaintiffs
say his motivation is directly linked
to him bringing "business to Irwin County,"
that he did these surgeries to bring in more revenue.
In 2015, Amin and the Hospital Authority of Irwin County
settled a lawsuit that alleged
they billed the federal government
for false Medicare and Medicaid claims,
though there was no determination of liability.
In 2018, he started seeing ICE detainees.
Lawyers representing Amin patients say
by increasing the number and types of procedures,
he could bill the government exponentially more.
-I think Dr. Amin saw an opportunity to -- to make money.
So, first off, women, nobody believes women
when they say anything.
They're immigrants. They're in detention.
It was a great opportunity for him.
And I'm afraid he's not the only person out there
that opportunistically seizes on detained people to make money.
-As calls for the detention center
to be shut down intensify, locals argue
it's the biggest private employer,
and their county heavily relies on its revenue.
How would the community actually be affected
if that detention center went away?
-When you have a multimillion-dollar facility
get -- get knocked down in assessed value,
and of course, that has the trickle effect
of less revenue by a significant amount,
yeah, that just -- that just affects everything.
So, it's not even just our ability
to provide the normal services.
It's, we want to advance. We want to make things better.
We want to provide new amenities.
And that just, you know, the -- the ripple effect there is --
I don't know if it can be overstated.
-I've been to so many detention centers in the United States.
I know you have, too.
They're very often in rural areas,
remote,
places without a lot of work.
But that is not a reason to keep the detention center open --
that people rely on it for work.
I don't believe it is. -Mm.
-I don't believe that you can justify
keeping an institution open that is evil
because it it quells or minimizes another evil,
which is, like, poverty and lack of education
and lack of opportunity.
-On May 20th, the Biden administration intervened.
They directed ICE to end its contract
with Irwin County Detention Center as soon as possible,
effectively guaranteeing that it is shut down as an ICE facility.
All of the female detainees have already been removed.
-In addition to the women who have already been deported,
we've also found several other women
now released and living in the U.S.
who saw Amin
and still haven't been contacted by federal investigators.
-Hey!
-One of those women is an Anne Alobwede.
-I'm good.
How are you doing?
Yeah, I know. [ Laughs ]
I got out December 16th.
-Oh, wow, that's -- -Right before Christmas. Yeah.
Yes, ma'am, I did. That's...
-Anne came to the U.S. from Cameroon as a teenager.
She was the patient lying next to Mbeti
on the day of their surgeries. -22 months.
-This is the first time they've spoken since being released.
-Are you having complications, if I may ask?
Really?
Yeah.
Yeah, something went wrong, because I --
I was still having pain, and --
Yeah.
Yeah. Me, too.
♪♪
-For the first time since her surgery,
Mbeti has a doctor's appointment to learn what happened to her.
♪♪
-I'm kind of nervous
and a little bit anxious,
so we'll see what kind of information I can get.
♪♪
-This is a moment
that all of these women have been waiting for,
you know, just having an appointment
after they leave the ICE facility
with an independent doctor
who can just tell them what happened to them
and what their health status is.
And specifically for Mbeti, she has one big question.
Will she be able to have kids?
According to Mbeti's records and Dr. Mueller,
Mbeti was given an unnecessary ultrasound, D&C,
scar tissue removal, laparoscopy, and cystectomy,
the surgical removal of a follicular cyst
that didn't need to be removed.
While Mbeti didn't get a hysterectomy,
she could still have trouble carrying a pregnancy.
-It's important to remember that surgical procedures,
even if they weren't hysterectomy,
can have bearing on a woman's future fertility.
-I had a look at the ultrasound,
and if I were to get pregnant,
I would have a complicated pregnancy.
And that's what I'm really thinking in the back of my head.
It was a relief to see that I had my uterus.
I know that I still have a long way to go.
♪♪
I mean, being a mom is -- is almost every girl's dream.
Having that threatened is -- is really very scary.
-While the class-action litigation is still pending,
Mbeti's lawyers are working to secure her a new visa
which protects victims of criminal activity
who testify in that investigation.
If both are denied,
Mbeti could be immediately deported to Kenya,
where she has no support system.
-After an intense legal process,
a U.S. judge agreed to reopen Yuridia's immigration case,
an outcome so rare that experienced lawyers only see it
a handful of times in their career.
This means that Yuridia and her daughters
can now legally reenter the U.S.
We're back in Saltillo to visit with Yuridia and her family.
Against all odds, Yuridia and her six daughters
will be getting on a flight tomorrow for the U.S.
to start the process to get permanent status.
How are you feeling about tomorrow?
-♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday ♪
-How do you imagine the moment
when you step foot back in the U.S.?
-[ Speaks Spanish ]
[ Laughs ]
♪♪
[ Man speaking indistinctly over intercom ]
♪♪
-So, we're just getting out of customs and baggage claim,
and they haven't made it out yet.
We were told to go one direction,
and the ICE officers took them into another office.
So now really, it's just -- It's a waiting game.
Yuridia's immigration attorneys
have been preparing for this moment for months.
If Yuridia makes it through immigration,
this will be the first time they're meeting.
How you guys feeling?
-Excited. Overwhelmed.
We didn't expect it to take as long as it did,
but we're just glad that it's here.
-I mean, we've thought about her and the kids for so long,
and we've never met her.
So we're just beyond excited to meet her in person.
-Is there anything that's concerning you right now?
-Honestly, just her getting here to be with us,
and then once -- Like, it just has felt really difficult,
her being so far away
and, like, things being so out of our control.
So it feels reassuring to have her here
and feel like we'll have a little bit more control
over how things go and the flow of the case.
And going forward, we'll see how everything goes.
♪♪
-She get through customs?
-She said [Speaks Spanish] so I'm asking her...
-Okay. -...what is next.
-She's typing.
-[ Speaks Spanish ] -Okay.
-What is it, 100 person?
-Yeah. Oh, the office is asking?
-Yes, I texted it to her earlier.
♪♪
She said they're almost done.
-Oh, great. Okay.
-[ Sighs ] We're going to burst.
[ Laughs ]
That's them. Is that Yuridia?
[ Laughter ]
Oh, you guys are so cute!
Nice to meet you!
[ Laughs ]
[ Laughter ]
-Yuridia and her daughters have started
to rebuild their life again in the U.S.
while her immigration case continues to unfold.
-Cheese! -Cheese!
♪♪