Patrick Keating and his parents supported Donald Trump believing his immigration policies would target criminals and strengthen border security. They never expected those same measures could eventually threaten the future of their own family.
Now, fewer than 12 months into Trump’s second term, the Bellaire family is confronting the possibility that Keating’s Honduran wife, Anyi Hernandez-Escobar, could be deported from the United States. Their 16-month-old daughter might leave with her, while the seven-year-old boy Hernandez-Escobar has raised could remain in America.
An immigration debate the conservative family once viewed mainly through the issues of border enforcement and criminality has suddenly become an intensely personal crisis.
“If I could go back, if my vote could somehow change everything, I’d go back and vote for Kamala just so we wouldn’t have to deal with this,” Keating said.
Hernandez-Escobar arrived in the US from Honduras in 2018, eight months pregnant and escaping what she described as a desperate situation. After crossing into Texas, she spent four days in detention before receiving parole that allowed her to remain in the country temporarily.
She eventually reunited with her sister, settled into life in Texas and attended the immigration appointments required of her. She also gave birth to her son, Daniel.
Later, she met Patrick, and the two married. Keating became a father figure to Daniel, and in May 2025 the couple welcomed their daughter, Emma.
At the same time, Hernandez-Escobar’s immigration case continued to crawl through an increasingly complex legal system as she pursued a lawful route to stay in the United States.
Anyi Hernandez-Escobar and Patrick Keating cast their ballots for Donald Trump. Now, they say the immigration policies they supported could force their family to leave the US and move nearly 2,000 miles away
The couple says they followed every available step in a difficult immigration process. Their case has now landed in immigration court as the Trump administration intensifies enforcement and rolls back Biden-era policies that allowed some proceedings to be placed on hold
The couple understood that marrying a US citizen would not automatically give Hernandez-Escobar lawful status. They also knew that having children born in America would not, on its own, shield her from removal. Still, they believed they were using the proper legal channels. After nearly two years of waiting, their I-130 and I-130A petitions were approved in June.
Soon afterward, however, the family’s hopes began to unravel.
An immigration judge in Houston denied Hernandez-Escobar’s request to pause her removal case while she continued with the next phase of her immigration application.
Her lawyer, Jennifer Lopez, said the ruling came after a June agreement involving Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Department of Justice ended a Biden-era practice that allowed judges to administratively close certain immigration cases.
Lopez said that before the policy changed, the judge had suggested he would temporarily close Hernandez-Escobar’s case while she pursued an immigration pathway based on her marriage to Keating.
“Originally, the judge had told her, when Biden was in, ‘Go ahead and file your I-130, come back to me and I will administratively close your case,’” Lopez said. “They did that, but by the time they got back to him, Trump had been sworn in and they had changed all the rules.”
The policy reversal has forced the family to consider an outcome that once seemed almost impossible.
Because Hernandez-Escobar entered the country without authorization, she cannot remain in the US while applying for a green card through the standard process. Under the legal route outlined by her attorney, she would have to return to Honduras, apply for an immigrant visa through a US consulate and seek a waiver of inadmissibility.
Ingrid, Keating’s mother, said she continues to support Trump on many issues, including stronger border enforcement and action against gang members. But she acknowledged that her family’s experience has changed how she sees the immigration debate
MORE ON THIS: Cornell Expels Student Following Intense Israel Debate Incident Involving University President
That waiver is generally available only to immigrants who are not already in removal proceedings. Administrative closure would have temporarily removed Hernandez-Escobar from that difficult position. With that option now off the table, her attorney says the family may ultimately have to move to Honduras.
And that is where the family encounters yet another hurdle, Hernandez-Escobar’s seven-year-old son Daniel may not be able to go with her.
Patrick has helped raise Daniel since the boy was about 18 months old, but he has no legal custodial rights. Daniel’s biological father, who lives in Maryland, has reportedly refused to surrender those rights and does not communicate with his son.
The family is now paying a family-law attorney to explore whether Patrick can adopt Daniel, while also considering whether the boy could remain with his grandparents if his mother, stepfather and baby sister have to leave.
‘I’ve raised him basically since he was a year and a half, but I have no custodial rights over him,’ Patrick explained. ‘Only Anyi and his biological father do. But both parents have to sign off on the passport.’
His greatest fear is that Daniel could become trapped in a legal limbo.
‘The scary part would be that Daniel can get lost in the legal foster care system, or somehow end up with a man he doesn’t know,’ he said.
The family’s predicament is all the more striking because Keating and his parents supported Trump at the ballot box, believing his immigration policies would primarily target criminals and people who posed a threat.
For Hernandez-Escobar, the consequences could be particularly severe. If she leaves for Honduras, the family fears her seven-year-old son Daniel may have to remain in America because of an unresolved custody dispute with his biological father
Hernandez-Escobar, who cannot vote herself, said she had supported Trump’s promise to remove criminals from the country.
‘There was a lot of crime in the country. I thought it was good to deport the bad people,’ she said. ‘Now, it doesn’t matter if you’re a good person or a bad person.’
As the family contemplates a possible move to Honduras, Keating’s mother-in-law Ingrid faces the prospect of caring for Daniel as she and her husband approach retirement – something neither had ever expected.
‘We’ll do what it takes to get through this,’ she said. ‘It’s been very stressful because we know it stresses their family. It is a different world from what my husband and I anticipated.’
Yet for all the turmoil, her position on Trump remains more complicated than a simple change of heart.
‘Immigration has been such a mess for so many years, but of course it’s easy not to pay too much attention when it’s not your immediate family,’ she said. ‘Now, all of a sudden, it really brings it home.’
‘I still like a lot of what he’s done, though not everything,’ she said. ‘When you’re going for the gang members and closing the borders, I think that’s really important.’
What she cannot accept, however, is the prospect of a child being separated from his parents.
‘Daniel needs to be with his parents and his sister,’ she said. ‘He loves them dearly. He loves us, but as his grandparents. But children need to be with their parents.’
Our News Outlet has reached out to Keating for comment.
