HOUSTON — A six-month-long nightmare is finally over for a Houston man and his family.
Jaime Avalos is back in Houston reunited with his family after a complicated immigration ordeal kept him stuck in Mexico.
The DACA recipient was able to return to the United States on Monday thanks in part to the work of Rep. Al Green.
This family's ordeal started in August 2022 when Avalos traveled from Houston to Cuidad Juarez in Mexico for what he believed would be an immigration interview required to achieve permanent residency. When he tried to return, he realized he was barred from re-entering the U.S.
Avalos is a "Dreamer," or DACA recipient, who was supposed to be protected from deportation. He was brought by his parents to the U.S. when he was 1. He's lived in Houston his whole life, graduated from Bellaire High School and married a U.S. citizen. The couple has a young son named Noah.
U.S. law banned him from re-entering the United States for 10 years because he left and returned with his mother once before as a child.
Green has been advocating for Avalos' re-entry, introducing a private bill in the House in November seeking permanent resident status for Avalos. He visited Avalos several times in Mexico over the last few months. Green made it a personal mission to get Avalos back to his wife and son in Houston. He even requested that he be allowed to return to the U.S. under humanitarian parole. That humanitarian parole was finally granted.
"Today marks a fulfilled promise made to bring my constituent Jaime Avalos home to his wife Yarianna Martinez and their one-year-old son, Noah. These three have experienced extreme adversity during this unexpected family separation," Green said.
