Texas 'Dreamer' reunites with family in the US after 6 months stranded in Mexico after a family secret upended his immigration interview. But the fight to secure his status in the US is not over yet.

• A former DACA recipient returned home to the US this week after six months stranded in Mexico.
• Jaime Avalos was able to secure humanitarian parole after a disaster immigration interview last year.

Nearly six months to the day since he last stepped foot in the United States, Jaime Avalos received a hero's welcome at the Southern border this week where his young wife and infant son were among a cadre of supporters anxiously awaiting his return.

The Houston husband and father spent the last half a year stuck in Ciudad Juárez after an immigration interview-gone-wrong left him stranded in Mexico and strapped with a 10-year ban on reentering the US, tearing Avalos away from his life in Houston where his wife and son remained.

Avalos, 28, was born in Mexico, but spent nearly his entire life in Texas after his mother brought him to the US when he was just a year old. In August 2022, he traveled to the US Consulate in Juárez to begin the process of trying to secure US citizenship after a decade shielded by his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival, or DACA, status, which prevented him from being deported despite being undocumented.

The meeting quickly deteriorated into a nightmare, however, when Avalos learned his mother had briefly taken him back to Mexico when he was just 7 years old — a trip he says he doesn't remember — before he was able to establish permanent residency in the US. The revelation that he had illegally re-entered the country not once, but twice, not only dashed his immediate dreams of becoming a resident, but saddled him with a 10-year ban on returning to the US.

The devastating discovery set off a months-long campaign spearheaded by Avalos' wife, Yarianna Martinez, who secured the help of a new immigration attorney, Naimeh Salem, as well as the couple's US congressman, Rep. Al Green of Texas, in the effort to bring her husband home.

Their combined efforts culminated in a happy ending on Monday when, after a nerve-wracking walk across the Paso del Norte International Bridge, Avalos was finally able to embrace his family on American soil.

A joyous reunion

The Monday border reunion drew quite a crowd, according to Martinez, who was accompanied by both Salem and Rep. Green, as well as members of the lawmaker's staff and media. The group gathered as they waited for Avalos — "the star of the show," as Martinez described her husband — to emerge triumphant following news that his request for humanitarian parole had been approved.

"It was exciting," Avalos told Insider in a phone call on Tuesday.

For six months he lived with an uncle in Juárez, trying to secure work in the foreign country while struggling with unfamiliar Spanish slang and receiving only infrequent and short-lived visits from his wife and one-year-old son, Noah.

Late last year, the couple's attorney requested humanitarian parole for Avalos. The parole status allows individuals who are ineligible for entry into the US to be allowed in on humanitarian grounds, but applicants often have to wait as long as 10 months before receiving an answer, Salem told Insider earlier this month.

Congressman Green's involvement in Avalos' case helped speed that process up for the family, Salem said in a press release. Martinez said she learned her husband's parole request had been approved only one week before their reunion when the couple's attorney and Green called to share the good news.

"I couldn't believe it," Martinez said. She immediately called her husband to celebrate, but after months of setbacks and heartbreak, Avalos initially assumed the worst.

"He said 'what's wrong' and started to freak out," Martinez told Insider, recounting the phone conversation. "That's when I said 'your parole got approved. You're coming home.'"

The couple, along with Salem and Green, spent the next week making travel arrangements and ensuring Avalos' papers and passport were in order, trying to speed through many of the standard parole processes, such as waiving the need for government-provided transportation.

"I said no we don't need none of that. We just need them to approve him," Martinez said. "He can walk that bridge and we've got it from there."

Local media present at the border on Monday captured a familial reunion full of emotion and exaltation.

"I'm totally overwhelmed," Martinez said. "I don't think we could be more blessed than we are."

An ongoing fight

The family's long separation is at an end, but their fight is only beginning, the couple said.

Avalos is back in the US on a two-year humanitarian parole, having lost his previous DACA status. In many ways, he is further from securing his goal of US citizenship than ever before. But if there's one thing the family has learned in the last six months, Martinez said, it is to never give up.

The family's next step is to try and acquire a work permit for Avalos so he can return to some sense of normalcy and reclaim the remnants of his past life. The couple is also counting on continued support from Green, who introduced legislation to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act last year, as well as filed a private bill requesting resident status for Avalos. The family hopes they will see both bills passed before Avalos' two-year-parole is up, they said.

Avalos, who spoke to Insider from Houston on Tuesday, said he's excited to eat "all the fast food" he missed out on for the last six months, and hopes to visit the rodeo soon. But for the immediate moment, he is most focused on spending as much time as possible with his young son, who he said is overjoyed and a bit bewildered by his father's sudden reappearance.

"The fight is not over," Martinez said. "But we can fight it together now."