Erika Mateo, a 24-year-old woman from Guatemala who gave birth at a Tucson hospital after being found in the desert by Border Patrol, holds her newborn daughter, Emily, in their hotel room in Phoenix on May 3, 2025.
“Asi me tocaba,” she said.
Instead, what happened over the next few days became an internationally watched story and sparked community outrage and mobilization to ensure she wouldn’t be deported or separated from her newborn.
This story is my attempt to set the record.
A few hours later (after Mateo and her daughter were able to sleep and have dinner) I was invited over to the their hotel room.
I shook Mateo’s hand. I met her baby girl, Emily. And I asked her to recount her odyssey.
She told she believed she was going to die in the desert.
MUST READ: "Trump plan for militarized mass deportations met with uncertainty, anxiety in Arizona." (via @stephanie_murr, @lauragersony and @raphaeldelag) https://t.co/fUiKHgpcX2
NEW: What would Trump's deportation plan mean for Arizona?
Dems and advocates are gearing up to fight, while leaders at the border say it’s not clear what a looming emergency declaration would actually mean for them
w/ @lauragersony & @raphaeldelag
https://t.co/VikF9Y2tK6