On May 30, 2025, a Milford family’s world was ruptured when ICE agents arrested a man in his backyard as his young sons watched from an upstairs window. Nexan Aroldo Asencio Corado, who had been living in the US for a decade without legal status, was deported to Guatemala a few months later. The lives of his American wife, Christina Toledo, and their twin boys, also born in the US, were thrown into upheaval. Asencio Corado’s pending application to stay in the US was set aside, leaving him with little hope of ever returning. The twins, Jhon and Damian, spent birthdays and school milestones without their father. And Toledo, suddenly left to care for their boys on her own, faced an impossible choice that played on an endless loop in her mind: Should she stay in the US, or should she move to Guatemala so that they could all be together?It is the kind of decision that thousands of mixed-status families across the country are now facing as the Trump administration, seeking to expand its mass deportation campaign, apprehends immigrants with US citizen family members who may have once been spared from removal. Over the past year, the Globe has followed Toledo’s family from Massachusetts to Guatemala as they were forced to decide whether, and how, to stay together. Here are photos documenting the family’s journey from June 2025 to July 2026. Christina Toledo comforted her son Jhon, after he refused to blow out the candles on his birthday cake with his twin brother in Milford on June 11, 2025. “I don’t want birthday,” Jhon said. “I want Daddy.” Toledo's husband and the boys' father, Nexan Aroldo Asencio Corado, was in detention awaiting a bond hearing as Toledo tried to fight back tears.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffToledo broke down after her 3-year-old twin Jhon (left) asked to see a video of his father who is in ICE detention as his twin brother, Damian, ate ice cream at their home in Milford on June 4, 2025.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffThree-year-old twins Damian (left) and Jhon ran to the window to look up at a helicopter circling overhead near their home on June 4, 2025.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffToledo held hands with Jhon (left) and Damian as they left Mass at St. Stephen Parish in Framingham on June 22, 2025.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffToledo embraced her son Damian after getting him dressed while she FaceTimed with her husband, Asencio Corado, who had called her from Guatemala to be there for the boys’ morning routine. She propped her phone against the same window that the boys looked out of the day he was taken away by ICE agents in Milford on Dec. 8, 2025.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffToledo laughed with the twins as they waited at the gate for their flight to Guatemala City on Dec. 16, 2025. Toledo and the boys were traveling to see Asencio Corado, the boys' father and Toledo’s husband, for only the second time since he was deported.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffToledo traveled with Damian (pictured) and Jhon on Dec. 16, 2025, to visit their father in Guatemala.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffAsencio Corado embraced his wife, Toledo, as they reunited at the airport in Guatemala City on Dec. 16, 2025, after months apart.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffJhon (left) and Damian peered out the back door of their cousin’s house at a horse on Dec. 17, 2025. “Caballo?” they asked while looking at the horse.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffAsencio Corado bent down to scoop up Jhon at Walmart, where they'd stopped before traveling to his small town near the border of El Salvador on Dec. 16, 2025.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffThe boys’ grandmother, Dora Alicia Corado Quiñónez (left) watched as Jhon (center) and Carlos played together in the yard as the remnants of a brilliant sunset fanned out across the sky in Yupiltepeque, Guatemala on Dec. 17, 2025. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffJhon (right) rode on the front of a dirt bike with a family friend as Damian rode behind on Dec. 18, 2025. Family and friends strained to get a look at the two American boys who were having a ball.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffDamian played with his toy car on the roof of his father’s home in Aldea El Amatillo Yupiltepeque Jutiapa, Guatemala on Dec. 17, 2025.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffAs the end of their stay approached, Toledo tried to pull her husband away from the worries that circled him, as they visited a friend’s house for dinner on Jan. 12, 2026.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffAsencio Corado embraced his twins after they ran up to him when he returned home from a shopping trip on Dec. 17, 2025. The boys seemed keenly aware of being separated again, asking, “Where’s Daddy?” each time Asencio Corado would leave and then running to him upon his return.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffDamian (center) and Jhon raced ahead of their mother, as she wiped away tears after leaving her husband behind on Jan. 14, 2026. The family had traveled to Guatemala to reunite for the holidays after Asencio Corado was deported, now Toledo and the boys have to leave Asencio Corado behind as they return to Massachusetts.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffToledo kissed Jhon as he slept on her shoulder, shortly before their plane landed back in Boston on Jan. 14, 2026. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffToledo on a video call with Asencio Corado, while their sons raced around their Milford home on Jan. 18, 2026, a few days after returning from visiting their father in Guatemala.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffJhon (left) and Damian looked up at their mom as they took a bath and got ready for bedtime on Feb. 6, 2026.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffJhon (right) looked over his shoulder at his mother and his twin brother, Damian, after taking a bath on Feb. 6, 2026.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffToledo sang to Damian (center) and Jhon after hanging up from a call with her husband, Asencio Corado, who had FaceTimed in from Guatemala as part of the nightly ritual of putting the boys to bed on Feb. 6, 2026. The couple is trying to keep their family as intact as possible after Asencio Corado was deported back to Guatemala after being picked up by ICE agents at the end of May in 2025.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe StaffJessica Rinaldi can be reached at jessica.rinaldi@globe.com. Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio can be reached at giulia.mcdnr@globe.com. Follow her @giuliamcdnr.