The Father Of The Honduran Girl In The Viral Photo Reveals That She Was Never Separated From Her Mother

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

The photo of Yanela, the Honduran girl in the pink jacket became a symbol of the "family separation" controversy that engulfs the Trump administration.

However, in the little girl's father it has been revealed that she never separated from her mother on the border with the United States.

In an interview with The Daily Mail, the girl's father, Denis Hernández, 32, said he had not heard from his wife for three weeks until he saw the image of his partner and daughter on the Internet. Hernández said he had not yet spoken to his wife, but was told that they were being held together in a family residential center and that they were "fine."

"You can imagine how I felt when I saw my daughter's photo," she said. "She broke my heart. It's hard as a parent to see that, but now I know they are not in danger. They are safer now than when they were making that trip to the border,”he told the publication.

The photo of the two-year-old girl crying as a Border Patrol agent apprehended her mother Sandra Sánchez, 32, in McAllen, Texas, quickly became one of the most recognizable images of the current immigration debate. illegal and family separation.

The image went around the world becoming a badge of the current crisis that the United States is going through. Time magazine featured the girl on her latest cover in a photo montage alongside the figure of the American president, Donald Trump.

In an interview with CBS This Morning, the Border Patrol agent explained how the events took place and assured that little Yanela and her mother were never separated and are in a detention center in Texas.

"We asked her to release the girl in front of her so we could requisition [the mother]. The girl started crying as soon as her mother released her,”said agent Carlos Ruíz. " I went up to him and asked, 'Are you okay? the girl is well? And she answered me. She is tired and thirsty, it is 11 pm”.

Photographer John Moore, who has photographed illegal immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border for years, told Time: “This [time] was difficult for me. As soon as it was over, they were loaded into a van. I had to stop and take deep breaths. All he wanted to do was pick it up. But I could not".

This mother and daughter are just one example of the thousands of families who are going through similar situations seeking political asylum and seeking a better future on American soil.