I came to this country for my son. I always tell people that if I didn’t have a son, I would have never come to a country that has treated me so horribly. They have spit on me. Yes in the detention, where immigration grabbed me, they treated me very badly. They gave me rotten food. I put up with it. They imprisoned me with my son, suffering. Where my son was, they were dying, where a lot of children were dying."

"I took sanctuary to fight, to re-open my case because I think it’s an injustice because it wasn’t my fault that I spoke Mam, and they didn’t have interpreters for me. They didn’t explain what an asylum was. They didn’t give me a lawyer. I didn’t even know that a person could have a lawyer. Nothing."

"It’s difficult, how the trauma returns when immigration attacks you….They don’t want you in your country, nor here in the United States, and that makes a person really sad. You say, “Why? What did I do? Why am I suffering so much? But somehow, I have to keep fighting. For my son’s life, I have to keep fighting."

To help Hilda and people seeking sanctuary, go to: