Family partially reunited after members were arrested by ICE agents in Minnesota

In an emotional reunion in Minnesota, a mother returned home to her 2-year-old after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests split up their family and left her toddler in the care of a family friend.

Before Scarlett got to see her mom again, excitement filled the room.

"Are you excited?" WCCO asked her in Spanish. 

"Yes!" Scarlett responded.

It was weeks and weeks of anticipation.

"She's asking every day, 'Where's my mommy? Where's my mommy?'" Jissica, a family friend who had the Delegation of Parental Authority for Scarlett, said. "And I kept saying, 'Your mom is coming soon.'"

Jissica watched over Scarlett for nearly a month, which was all made possible by the DOPA form Scarlett's parents signed as an extra precaution in case they were detained.

"Thank you for watching my daughter," Janeth, Scarlett's mom, told Jissica in Spanish.

"Every Monday they'd tell me I needed to wait," Janeth told WCCO in Spanish.

Janeth says the family came to the U.S. from Ecuador for their kids two years ago. She isn't a citizen and is seeking asylum with a year to prove her situation.

Janeth told WCCO she isn't a criminal. 

"I needed to leave my country to work for my kids. We are not criminals," Janeth said in Spanish.

The family was driving in mid-January when agents pulled them over.

"I kissed my kids and I said let me give them a hug and kisses because I might not come back," Janeth said in Spanish.

That was the moment she'd feared. Janeth says she was detained, along with her husband and 4-year-old.

"I said, 'I have two kids,' but they didn't care," she said in Spanish.

Scarlett went to Jissica while the rest of the family was sent to a Texas immigration facility. 

With the help of a lawyer, Janeth and her 4-year-old are back home, but her husband was deported.

"I'm happy I'm with my daughter, but sad because my husband is gone," Janeth said in Spanish. "Right now, it still doesn't feel safe."

Despite that feeling, she told Scarlett in Spanish, "I'm not leaving again."