Hilda Gloria Yanez-Zavala and her boys came to the U.S. three years ago from a rural town in El Salvador, she says.

The family never hid during the journey, they say. And when they reached the border, they reported to immigration authorities and requested asylum, as the law requires.

When their application was accepted, the family traveled to Fulton, where some of their other family members — including the boys' sister and older brother‚ already lived. The boys went to school, learned English and made friends. Yanez-Zavala, their mom, legally got a job at Nutrition Bar Confectioners Factory in Cato.

On the first day of the 2025-2026 school year, Yanez-Zavala made her boys pancakes. The boys got on the school bus, and Yanez-Zavala headed to work.

That's when their American dream shattered.

Immigration agents stormed the Cato factory, detaining Yanez-Zavala and 56 other workers. Like more than 20 of the workers who were taken with her, Yanez-Zavala was separated from her children.

After a month in detention, Yanez-Zavala decided to self-deport back to El Salvador. Although she and the boys had a pending asylum case, being detained meant she no longer had money to pay for a lawyer.

The family was then left to make an agonizing decision: Should the boys, Jose, 15, and Nain Maldonado-Zavala, 13, stay in America or return to El Salvador?

She brought them here three years ago to give them a better life, she said. Could they still get it?

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