Stormy Daniels’ lawyer takes case of kids in Phoenix removed from parents
Jun 21, 2018, 4:09 PM | Updated: 9:12 pm
(KTAR Photo/Griselda Zetino)
(KTAR Photo/Griselda Zetino)
PHOENIX — Michael Avenatti, the attorney known for representing adult film star Stormy Daniels, has new clients. He’s representing children who were separated from their parents at the border, including five who are in Phoenix.
Avenatti was in Phoenix on Thursday to meet with the children, including a 6-year-old boy from Honduras. Samir had been at a Southwest Key facility for migrant children for about 10 days. His mother, Levis, is being detained in Laredo, Texas.
During the visit, Avenatti brought Samir a letter from his mother, whom he hasn’t seen or spoken with since June 2. They were separated shortly after they crossed the border in Texas.
“At first as, you might imagine, he was very shy and standoffish,” Avenatti said. “We kept telling him we were there and had been sent by his mother, but he didn’t believe us for a significant period of time. He just kept saying, ‘No, no it’s not true.’”
After a while of trying to convince him that the letter was, in fact, from his mother, Samir colored a picture of the Little Mermaid. Avenatti said he promised Samir he would take the picture to his mom.
Avenatti said Samir is doing fine physically. He said the Southwest Key facility where Samir and nearly 130 other migrant children are being housed has counselors on hand and is “well-maintained.”
“I thought the staff was very cooperative,” he said. “They’re doing the best to care for these children. But the fact remains that these children are better off with their parents and certainly should not be over 1,000 miles away in an unknown place.”
Samir and his mother came to the U.S. to seek asylum. Avenatti said it took them three months to reach the U.S.-Mexico border.
“They fled a very violent situation in Honduras,” he said. “She had a legitimate concern that she would be killed and her son would be killed.”
Avenatti has been in the news for representing Daniels in her suit against President Donald Trump over a non-disclosure agreement about an alleged relationship in 2006 and ’07.
He is representing more than 60 parents and children with similar stories as Samir and his mother. With many of the parents, he said he’s had a hard time helping them track down their children.
He added he’s concerned Trump’s new executive order to stop family separation at the border “doesn’t provide for any reunification effort for the families who’ve already been separated.”
“This is a disgrace,” he said. “It has no place in the world, let alone in the United States of America. This is not what we’re about.”
