For many months now, ICE has been tearing families apart and detaining anyone whom they see fit, regardless of their legal status. Plenty of people are doing their best to take a stand, protesting and helping targeted victims escape the agents. However, more often than not, things just have a sad ending, which was the case for the two boys, Jose and Nain Maldonado-Zavala. Ages 15 and 13, the two teens were living with their mother in New York before ICE raided her workplace and snatched her up back in September 2025, leaving her sons to fend for themselves.
Fortunately, the two teenagers had a family member in the area who could keep an eye on them, but since the relative is dealing with their own immigration issues, they couldn’t serve as their legal guardian. For years, 52-year-old Hilda Gloria Yanez-Zavala had been working to give Jose and Nain a better future in the States. Although they were under a pending asylum case, she was still allowed to work legally, yet that didn’t matter to ICE.
Eventually, Yanez-Zavala sadly had to self-deport because she wasn’t able to make money to support them or pay the lawyer for their case, leaving the two boys behind. For the past several months, they did their best to get by, but things obviously haven’t been easy without their mom. “She was everything,” Nain remarked, deeply missing his mom.
According to Syracuse.com, Jose wants to stay, but Nain wants to leave for El Salvador, where their mother has returned. Yet, both boys had so much to leave behind on top of all that they achieved while they were living in New York. Still, with no source of income, they both have to return to El Salvador, leaving behind everything.
“Just wanna reiterate this louder for the mouth breathers who will come in cheering for this and begging to get banned: SHE 👏WAS 👏HERE 👏LEGALLY👏,” exclaimed a frustrated Reddit commenter, pointing out how Yanez-Zavala was working legally in the US, according to court records. “They were here legally. They did everything right. It didn’t matter.”
