Patrick Keating and his parents supported Donald Trump believing his hard-line immigration agenda would target criminals. They never expected those policies could eventually put their own family in the crosshairs.
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. Their 16-month-old daughter might leave with her, while the seven-year-old boy Hernandez-Escobar has helped raise could remain in the United States.
Immigration was once, for the conservative family, largely a debate about border security and the removal of criminals. Hernandez-Escobar’s case has transformed that political issue into a painful personal crisis.
“If I could go back, if my vote would somehow change everything, I’d go back and vote Kamala just so we don’t have to deal with this,” Keating said.
Hernandez-Escobar arrived in the United States from Honduras in 2018, eight months pregnant and escaping what she called a desperate situation. After crossing into Texas, she spent four days in detention before being granted temporary parole to remain in the country.
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. The two married, and he became a father figure to Daniel. In May 2025, they welcomed a daughter, Emma.
Throughout that time, Hernandez-Escobar’s immigration case proceeded slowly through an increasingly complex legal system as she searched for a lawful way to remain in America.
Anyi Hernandez-Escobar and Patrick Keating voted in support of Donald Trump. They now say the immigration policies they backed could force the family to leave the United States and move nearly 2,000 miles away
The couple say they followed every available step through a complicated 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 paused
The couple understood that marriage to a US citizen would not automatically give Hernandez-Escobar legal status. They also knew that having children born in the United States would not, by itself, block her removal. Still, they believed they were pursuing the proper legal route. After nearly two years of waiting, their I-130 and I-130A petitions were approved in June.
Soon afterward, however, their situation changed dramatically.
A Houston immigration judge refused Hernandez-Escobar’s request to pause her removal case while she moved forward with the next phase of her application.
Her lawyer, Jennifer Lopez, attributed the ruling to a June agreement between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Department of Justice. The deal ended a Biden-era approach that allowed immigration judges to administratively close some cases.
Lopez said the judge had previously suggested he would close Hernandez-Escobar’s case temporarily while she pursued an immigration process 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 shift has placed the family in a situation they say they never expected to face just months earlier.
Because Hernandez-Escobar entered the country without authorization, she cannot simply stay in the United States while applying for a green card. Under the process 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 and considers tougher border enforcement and action against gang members important. But she said her family’s experience has changed how she sees the immigration debate
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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 obstacle. Without it, her attorney says, the family may ultimately have no option but 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.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to Keating for comment.