Help the Hernandez Family Bring Avi Home

My brother in law, Afilene de la Cruz Hernandez Guzman, known as Avi, is currently facing indefinite detention and potential deportation, separating him from his wife and 6 children in the U.S. He is currently being held at Broward Transitional Center

Avi faced a harrowing situation in his home country of Honduras. In 2002, his life took a tragic turn when the mother of his 3 oldest children caught on fire in a tragic cooking accident and suffered in agony for almost a week with no treatment at the hospital until she died of pneumonia, all while Afilene stood by her side and ran the halls of the hospital pleading for them to at least do something to clean or dress her wounds or ease the pain. In that fire their entire home burned down with all of their belongings. This left him traumatized and desperate to care for his three children ages 3 months, 4 years, and 5 years old. And his children likewise were left traumatized as they were in the fire with their mother and the two older girls watched their mother essentially burn to death. Avi had no choice but to go try and find a way to provide for his girls and extricate them from violence and danger like sexual abuse in addition to the food insecurity and other impacts of growing up in an impoverished country. His journey was fraught with challenges because when he initially fled Honduras, he was returned at the border. He stayed a short while in Mexico and returned to the border to try again due to his desperate circumstances and was caught inside the US, detained for a period and deported.

Despite these setbacks, Avi made it to the U.S. in 2004, where he met and married his wife, Aubrey, in 2005. Together, they have been tirelessly working to legalize his status, engaging with attorneys and advocacy groups. Avi has integrated into the community – serving others, working, and paying taxes under a legal tax ID, while also facing the ongoing struggle to secure his legal status.

After they were married, Aubrey was able to petition to bring Avi’s 3 girls to the US on resident visas. The 3, now adults and legal US citizens and residents, were joined by 3 younger siblings born in 2006, 2008, and 2010, giving them 6 children. The older children have faced many hurdles to overcome the trauma they experienced and are now adults contributing to society: one was just accepted as a master’s degree candidate in education, another is in France completing a master’s in data science. Of the three younger children, one will graduate high school without her father if we can't find a way to bring Avi home by the spring. Their two youngest children will have to go through their teen years without their father.

Avi married into a family with a strong military and civil service tradition, including a brother in law who died while serving as an Army Chaplain, a Father-in-law who served in the Vietnam Era, and a Grandfather in law who served WW2 Era earning both a bronze star and purple heart. Avi’s extended family in the US are also serving in important roles in the Fire Service, Education, Clinical Research/Medicine, and Technology. In short, they are a family that value and have fought for the ideals of the American dream, one that immigrants like Avi desperately seek when under the threat of violence or poverty in their country of origin.

These funds will go to fill the gaps on the day to day expenses and bills, legal bills, and other necessities that will arise now that Aubrey is the sole provider and working a second job trying to get Avi home to his family where he belongs.