Brazilian Boy Reunited With Mother, Who Cried For His Return At Boston Rally

A Brazilian woman separated from her son in May while seeking asylum in the United States has been reunited with the 10-year-old boy in Chicago.

The reunion occurred Thursday afternoon, just hours after a federal judge ordered the U.S. government to release the boy to his mother.

The mother, Sirley Silveira Paixao, cried as Judge Manish Shah said they should be promptly reunited.

The 30-year-old woman couldn't stop smiling after the hearing. Through an interpreter, she said she was "very happy" and would never let her son leave her side.

The order came shortly after Shah reunited another Brazilian family.

He mulled his decision in the other case for hours, but he took just minutes Thursday, noting no one questioned the mother's fitness to care for her child.

Silveira Paixao spoke at Saturday's Rally Against Family Separation on Boston Common, and sobbed onstage as she described being separated from her son.

"It was just the worst moment of my life," she said at the rally. "I had [the] impression I would never see him again."

Silveira Paixao and her son were separated shortly after they arrived in the U.S. She was released on June 13 and has been living in Massachusetts.