(NewsNation) — A 4-year-old girl from Honduras who was found alone at the southern border by officials last year is back with her mother.
NewsNation has followed the emotional journey since November, when U.S. immigration officials said they found the child after she was smuggled by coyotes through South America.
The unnamed girl had a note with her, on it written a phone number and her mother’s name, “Mama Paty.”
Her mother, who was already in the states, told NewsNation she left her child in the hands of criminal smugglers in Honduras and Mexico in hopes of being reunited.
The 4-year-old was held under federal custody for a little over a month as officials worked to verify her mother’s identity before the pair were finally reunited.
NewsNation traveled to South Carolina to meet the happily-reunited family.
“They were endless days for me. I couldn’t sleep at night,” Paty said. “I was just waiting for a message, a call, someone to tell me if my daughter was okay.”
Both mother and daughter had previously been deported back to Honduras three years ago after crossing illegally into the United States with the help of a smuggler.
Paty decided to attempt crossing into the U.S. again — but this time, without her daughter, who stayed back in Honduras with her grandparents.
Paty and her daughter are overwhelmed with joy to be finally together again here in the U.S., but also now worry that they could be removed, as the Trump administration promises to carry out largest deportation in national history.
“Everything we’ve been through would have been for nothing. All the risk my daughter took — it was a big risk since she was traveling alone — would have been for nothing,” Paty said. “It would be devastating. If Donald Trump were to deport me, or deport both of us together.”
She told NewsNation, if she were to be deported, she would bring her daughter back with her to Honduras rather than have her stay with relatives in America.
