Immigrant kids facing deportation wait to learn fate

Some of the children who crossed the United States border with Mexico alone are now learning if they will be granted a stay or if they have to go.

Channel 2's Kerry Kavanaugh spoke to one mother who says a judge issued her 11-year-old daughter a voluntary deportation order.

Roselvi Perla told Kavanaugh in Spanish it just doesn’t seem fair.

Kavanaugh met Perla when she and her daughter, Tatiana, left the Federal Immigration Courthouse in Atlanta, Tuesday.
 
She says she's devastated to learn Tatiana can't to stay with her in Georgia.

Tatiana came to the United States from El Salvador alone in July. It was the first time she'd seen her mother in eight years. Tatiana's one of the children classified by the federal government as an "unaccompanied minor." Those children flooded the border earlier this year.

According to the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement 1,709 of those children landed in Georgia. They were placed with their families already living here, while they awaited their day in court.
For many that day has come.
 
Tuesday, Perla said a judge denied her daughter's application to stay. She said the judge issued a voluntary deportation order and that Tatiana has to leave by March.
 
"We really surprised about this. We never expected this was going to happen," said Claudia Valenzuela with the El Salvadoran Consulate.
 
Valenzuela says she was shocked to learn a judge would deport a child.
 
It's unclear how many other children are in Tatiana's shoes.
 
Kavanaugh contacted Immigration Customs Enforcement, ICE. They said they have yet to publicly release that data. Kavanaugh also contacted the Executive Office of Immigration Review. They did not respond.
 
"I don't want her to go," Perla said.
 
ICE said Kavanaugh could submit a Freedom of Information Act request to try to obtain some of the information requested. Kavanaugh submitted the request Wednesday afternoon.
 

WSBTV