Michael Avenatti, whose name became synonymous with resisting Donald Trump through the protracted legal battle being waged over Trump’s numerous affairs with a notable adult film actress and more than one nude model, took on another fight more than a month ago when he decided to wade into immigration waters as the representative for many of the families torn apart by the Trump administration’s misguided and cruel “zero tolerance” policy at the border.
Along the way, Avenatti has documented his travels, his cases, his clients, and essentially all of the work he’s been doing — all for the public to see on his Twitter feed.
Now he’s completed at least one case, and he couldn’t be more proud. In fact, the family he’s represented couldn’t be happier, because they get to be reunited with their child once again in Guatemala. Avenatti had been locked in a fight over the fate of a young boy named Antony, who spent nearly three months apart from his family, as recently as mid-August, when he appeared in court once more to petition to have Antony released:
.@ricardo_de_anda & I appeared in ct today to attempt to allow us to take our client Antony home to mom in Guatemala TODAY. The govt opposed our request – he will now have to stay perhaps another 2 mos here. He hasn’t seen his mom in 81 days. Trump and his cronies have no heart. pic.twitter.com/hD0AZHgIoQ
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) August 14, 2018
The day after that tweet, however, Michael won his petition and was granted custody of Antony so that he could fly with him back to Guatemala to reunite him with his grief-stricken mother. In a photo that’s been retweeted more than eleven thousand times since he posted it, Avenatti showed Antony on the last leg of what must have been the most harrowing three months of his young life, standing at the airport waiting to board a plane home:
81 days after being forcibly separated from his mother due to the cruel and unusual president, Antony is going home to Guatemala to be reunited with his mother. Finally. #Basta pic.twitter.com/tduRg3jT9T
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) August 15, 2018
And finally — finally — back home in the arms of his mother:
It ends today at 81 days for Antony and Elsa. But continues for over 500 others… pic.twitter.com/1alDklaMyA
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) August 15, 2018
America thanks Michael Avenatti for his service to immigrants and to the goodness of our nation.
Now we must do something about the 1,500 still missing. It starts with the midterms.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Flickr
