Luis, the father of a 9-year-old girl with spina bifida, set out from his home country of Honduras with a vision: to seek asylum in the U.S. and get better medical services for Dayana.
“I feel like I’m starting to reach the goals I set for myself,” Luis said Tuesday as he prepared to leave the Rio Grande Valley to Houston in a few days.
Luis carried his ailing 9-year-old daughter most of the journey to seek asylum in the U.S. only to be turned away and sent back to Mexico in late April, due to a CDC order underpinned by a federal public health code known as Title 42.
Although the family could have been allowed to stay in the U.S. through a humanitarian exception in the order, they were sent back to Mexico like thousands of other asylum seekers.
Luis and Dayana ended up in Reynosa, Mexico, where they relocated from the international bridge to a plaza two blocks away. They spent that night among hundreds of other migrants sleeping on the concrete ground near a gazebo at the center of the city park.
Dayana, who struggles to walk, slept on the ground over a blanket, her ankles still bleeding and raw from the damage of wearing foot braces she’d overgrown during the brief walk on U.S. soil.
“I felt God moving after we were left living on the blanket,” Luis said recalling that night, adding, “and then a hand comes and pulls you out of all of that. I felt like I had won the lottery.”
Help came in the form of a U.S.-based nonprofit, the Sidewalk School. The two co-founders, Felicia Rangel-Samponaro and Victor Cavazos, began focusing on identifying and providing shelter to vulnerable migrants expelled to Reynosa.
Dayana was born with spina bifida, strabismus, convulsions, and urinary reflux, a condition that requires a catheter and diapers. Due to the expulsion, Luis was left to perform the sensitive procedure of catheterization, which requires a private and sanitized environment, in a city park filled with hundreds of people.
The pair was moved to a safe environment within two days. A few days after the Sidewalk School shared their story, donations poured in to help purchase new foot braces for Dayana.
About a week after their expulsion, through legal assistance that reinforced the humanitarian exception, Rangel-Samponaro said Luis and Dayana were brought into the U.S.
On Monday, the father and daughter will be heading to Houston where the Ronald McDonald House will be providing them shelter at the Holcombe House for a few months while Dayana sees a subspecialist for spina bifida at the hospital across the street.
“We’re so glad,” Cristina Vetrano, CEO Ronald McDonald House, said of their role in helping the Honduran family. “Our mission is to provide a home away from home for families who have children who are seriously ill and are being treated at the Texas Medical Center.”
In the meantime, a woman who was moved by the family’s troubles contacted the Sidewalk School with a specific donation in mind.
“She’s been following us for a while; she donates. She started following the story of Luis and Dayana and something about it just touched her,” Rangel-Samponaro said.
The woman donated an RV. Rangel-Samponaro said they are making some repairs before it’s driven from Oklahoma City to Houston.
After that, the Sidewalk School is prepared to cover the first couple of months of rent and utilities.
“As a parent, I’m happy, because any parent who loves their child, their dream is to reach all your goals,” Luis said.
Luis and Dayana will be requiring legal assistance to pursue their asylum claims in the U.S.
Now that his original plans were achieved, Luis will be working toward three new goals.
“First, I want her to enter into the American healthcare system,” Luis said. Once she’s settled, he hopes Dayana can start attending school and develop intellectually.
“I would also like to take a couple of English classes,” he said. “If I’m going to move in a system that requires it, the least I could do is to start forming part of it and adapting to it because I need it.”
