Lidia Karine Souza of Brazil has been fighting to get her son back. (AP)
A 9-year-old Brazilian boy has become the latest face of family separation at the border after a federal judge ordered his immediate release from a government-contracted shelter in Chicago on Thursday.
Lidia Karine Souza was separated from her son, Diogo, at the U.S.-Mexico border in May. She was released from a Texas detention facility on June 9 but her son has spent four weeks at a shelter in Chicago, much of it alone in a room, quarantined with chicken pox.
A lawsuit for Diogo’s release was filed on Tuesday, and it made the case that he was not an unaccompanied minor and should be returned to his mother.
Federal District Court Judge Manish Shah decided on Thursday that the child should be released from federal custody immediately and reunited with his mother.
Souza has moved in with relatives outside of Boston since her release and was able to see Diogo on Tuesday, their first meeting since May.
Calls to pass legislation that would end family separations at the border went unanswered on Wednesday after a GOP immigration bill was rejected in a 301-121 vote.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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