Watch the emotional reunion between a Honduran father held in detention for 5 months and his family
After five months in deportation facilities, a Honduran father was reunited with his family, and the heartwarming moment was captured on video.
Henry Cruz Amaya arrived in Boston late Thursday night and was reunited with his wife, son and niece, according to WCVB. He had been held in a deportation facility for five months.
The video shows Cruz Amaya running into Boston’s South Station with a huge smile. His son is waiting at the terminal door, and is the first one to greet him in an emotional embrace. The video then shows Cruz Amaya crying and running into his wife Frances’s arms, before initiating a group hug with the whole family. Francis smiles through tears, and her husband raises his hand in the air in celebration. Then he picks up his wife and walks off through the station, Frances gripping her husband and grinning from ear to ear. WCVB posted the video on Facebook, and people can’t get enough of the emotional reunion — it has 15,000 views.
The family arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border seeking asylum in June, according to WCVB. A Change.org petition created by Honduras Hope explains that, although they were entering legally, because of “current ICE policy” Cruz Amaya was detained while Frances, their son Fernando, 13, and Frances’s niece Nathalia, 12, were able to enter the U.S.
Unfortunately, Frances and her niece weren’t even able to stay together in the U.S. Frances and Fernando were allowed into the U.S. for “humanitarian reasons” and went to New Hampshire to live with their sponsor while awaiting their asylum hearing date, according to Honduras Hope. Nathalia was separated from them even though Frances has been her legal guardian since Nathalia’s mother (Frances’s sister) was murdered two years ago. Border control didn’t honor this, and Nathalia was processed as an unaccompanied minor and sent to Chicago.
It took three months and a lot of work for the three of them to be reunited. But their family still wasn’t whole because Cruz Amaya remained in detention. First, he was taken to an ICE detention center in Laredo, Texas, according to the petition. Then he was moved to the Folkston ICE Detention Center in Georgia.
The Honduras Hope petition was created in the hopes of reuniting the family, and it got almost 1,000 signatures. “This family has experienced, and ultimately escaped, unspeakable trauma,” the petition stated. “In fact, Frances cannot walk without assistance due to a gun shot wound she received as a teenager.” Cruz Amaya carried his wife on his back for “many miles during their harrowing journey,” the petition said.
They were finally reunited this week, thanks to the intervention of the ACLU and New Hampshire’s congressional delegation.
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