Woman seeks return of 9-year-old son taken by immigration authorities on May 30

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A Brazilian woman forcibly separated from her 9-year-old son at the US-Mexican border on May 30 is turning to the federal courts in hopes of being reunited with her child, who she believes is being held in a detention facility in a Texas Gulf Coast town.

The woman is identified in court papers only by the initials of WR, and her cause has been taken up by the Boston-based Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice and the law firm Wilmer Hale. She is currently living in Malden with her brother following her release from custody on June 20.

According to the court papers filed in US District Court in Boston, the woman and her son — known as AR in court papers — fled their native Brazil, where she was the victim of domestic violence at the hands of her husband, who she feared could kill her and harm her son.

Mother and son arrived on May 28 at Yuma, Ariz., where a Customs and Border Patrol agent tried to talk to her in Spanish, until she was able to clarify that she speaks Portuguese. Using Google translate, the woman told the agent she was seeking asylum as she was in fear for her life if she returned to Brazil, according to court papers.

The agent seized the woman’s money, identification, and belongings — and separated mother from child, who were transported to the same detention facility. But for the next two days, they could see each other from their separate “cages,” but had no direct contact, according to the court records.

“If WR walked to one end of her cage, and AR did the same, WR could see him from afar,’’ according to court records. “WR could see that AR was frightened, crying, and very upset. WR could see that A.R. was housed in a cage with other children of various ages some appearing as young as two or three, which had a cement floor, and did not have beds or mattresses.”

The two were then separated May 30 — she was allowed to give her child a brief hug before he was taken away — and the woman has only had sporadic and limited telephone conversations with her son since then.

“My son was ripped from my arms, and I was transferred from detention facility to detention facility. I have not seen my son since that day,’’ WR said in a statement released by the committee on Monday. “My life has become a nightmare.”

The committee and the law firm are asking a judge to return the boy to his mother and to rule the actions of the federal law enforcement was unconstitutional, and in violation of the procedures immigration agencies are obligated to follow.