Day one

Day one, written with thumbs as I fall asleep. Short day, 9 am to 10 pm. Tomorrow is a 5:45 wake-up for a 6:45 start. Bond hearings for me.
Today: beautiful faces on exhausted women, adorable children. Tears; mine and theirs: Young E. will spend his 10th birthday in this metal and gravel prison tomorrow, but was so thrilled to be turning 10. Mom so proud.
Most of the tears today were tears of relief, but not joy, from a step in the process having gone well.
At the end of the day, two local city council members, almost certainly immigrants themselves, came in to thank the week's team (appr. 14 of us:  lawyers, paralegals, accredited representatives and interpreters).  People from the team disclosed that these two men had, all on their own, been facilitating the travel for women and their children released on bond, needing to get to various parts of the country to join their families.  These two men were raising money, and spending a lot of their own on bus fare, changes of clothing, toys to keep the children occupied, and even phones for mothers traveling for days with infants.  True heroes - a great way to end the first day.