Emerson Colindres' sister (left), mother (right) address the crowd of protesters outside the Butler County Jail on June 8. Photo: Ryon Tunstull

Ada Bell Baquedano Amador’s world has been flipped upside down in a matter of weeks.

On June 4, her 19-year-old son, Emerson Colindres, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a routine check-in with the agency.

On June 6, ICE issued Baquedano and her 16-year-old daughter, Allison, to leave the country within 30 days.

On June 8, hundreds of friends, family and strangers assembled outside the Butler County Jail to protest Colindres’ detention inside the jail.

Despite legal motions to block Colindres’ deportation, he was transferred out of the Butler County Jail, driven to a Michigan airport, flown to a private ICE prison in Louisiana, and deported to Honduras on June 18. Colindres has not set foot in Honduras since his family fled to the U.S. when he was 8 years old.

Now, after a decade of building a life in Cincinnati, Baquedano and her daughter are packing to move back to Honduras on ICE’s orders, leaving Tuesday.

With the help of a translator, CityBeat hopped on the phone with Baquedano to discuss the impending move and what’s next.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

CityBeat: A lot has happened since we last spoke. How are you doing?
Ada Bell Baquedano Amador: I feel a little bit better now that I know that [Emerson] is free, but I am really anxious to get back and see him.

CB: How has the communication been since Emerson arrived in Honduras?
Baquedano: We’ve been able to talk a whole lot. I mean, we talk all the time on FaceTime. The one thing is, there’s a two-hour time difference, so it’s like waiting for each other to be available.

CB: Since you’ve been able to talk to him more, what has he said about his experience in ICE custody?

Baquedano: He just hopes that nobody else has to go through what he went through.

CB: You’ve mentioned that where he landed was about four hours away from your family ties in Honduras. Once he landed, what were his next steps? And how is he doing emotionally being away from his home in Cincinnati?
Baquedano: One of our family friends and one of his cousins went, and they picked him up. He’s handling it actually pretty well. You know, I know that he’s really anxious and looking forward to us coming, and luckily, we’re gonna be able to get there really soon.

CB: Two days after Emerson was arrested, you and your daughter Allison were given a 30-day order to leave the country. Did you try to appeal that? Or was that even an option for you?
Baquedano: When that happened, we had asked them, ‘Could we have more time?’ And they just said, point blank, ‘No.’ It was really important for me to request more time, because we had no idea how long Emerson was going to be detained. If he’s going to be detained for a long time, we didn’t want him to be here and us being in Honduras, because it would be even more difficult for us to communicate with each other.

CB: When are you and Allison leaving the U.S. for Honduras?
Baquedano: We already bought our plane tickets for Tuesday.

CB: What has that process been like, planning to move across the world so quickly?
Baquedano: I’ve been really lucky to have so many people by my side helping me, so that’s made it a little bit easier. But like, in terms of things I can bring, all I’m able to bring is, like, clothes, nothing else. 

Honestly, our furniture is ruined [by our dogs], so that’s not top of my mind right now.

CB: Are your dogs going to be able to move with you?
Baquedano: We’ve been trying to figure that out. We took them to the vet today to see if it’s possible.

CB: Your daughter celebrated her birthday this week; she’s in the middle of her high school years. How is she handling this move?
Baquedano: It’s been really, really hard for Allison. I mean, she’s been with her brother her entire life. She just doesn’t know anything else. She keeps being like, ‘Is this going to be really impossible for me? I don’t remember anything about life there.’

CB: There are so many steps to take when you arrive in Honduras. Can you tell me about that? Do you have work lined up? Do you know where you’re going to live?
Baquedano: No. We are going back the exact same way that we came: with nothing but faith that we are going to find a way to start.

CB: What are you going to miss about your life here in Cincinnati?
Baquedano: The hardest thing is always assimilating. It’s really tough to help my kids really get used to living in a new country.

CB: You told me that you left Honduras because of safety. Going back, do you worry about your safety this time?
Baquedano: Absolutely. When I talked to Emerson on the video call and FaceTime, he was wearing his gold chain, and I was like, ‘Emerson! What are you doing? Put that away. Don’t you know that you can’t be wearing something like that?’ And so, yeah, I’m definitely worried about what it’s going to be like there.

CB: Do you have hopes or plans to come back to the U.S.? Perhaps under a new administration?
Baquedano: If they give them the opportunity, yes.

CB: Your story got so big in Cincinnati and across the country, even. It all happened in a matter of weeks. How has that spotlight felt?
Baquedano: I feel really thankful that we’ve been able to do [these interviews], because hopefully we’ll be able to help other people. I hope that it’s not quite so bad for other people, that they can learn something from what we’ve had to go through.

CB: Do you have a departing message to your Cincinnati community?
Baquedano: Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity for my kids to learn a second language, to have an education here. I just want to say thank you for the support.

Related


Background on the family’s immigration journey

Baquedano brought her two young children to the United States in 2014 to escape violence in Honduras. Colindres was 8 years old.

ICE agents at the border allowed them to enter the country, and Baquedano immediately started the process of setting up a case. The family got an attorney and applied for asylum. Between regular check-ins with immigration officials, they made a life for themselves in Cheviot, their new community. Baquedano brought her family to church, served food and cleaned houses with a work permit, and attended her son’s soccer games.

Colindres’ love of soccer was born in Honduras but blossomed in the U.S.

“He had really hoped to go to a college and play soccer,” Baquedano said. “The other young men on the team, Galaxy, they had been working with him to try to help him apply. There is a university in Kentucky they had all been looking at that seems to be open to immigrants, and he had hoped to one day turn professional.”

In 2019, the family’s asylum case was denied, so they appealed. An order of removal was issued for the family, but that doesn’t mean they were required to self-deport. CityBeat confirmed the legal nuance with an immigration attorney who declined to speak on the record. Under the law, it is up to the Attorney General to remove noncitizens who have an order of removal or subject them to supervision conditions. ICE approved the latter for Baquedano’s family. They were told to attend routine check-ins with immigration officials, and Baquedano, who has no criminal record, was given an ankle monitor.

“For the past 11 years, I have done every single thing that is asked of me,” Baquedano said. “I’ve been at every [immigration] appointment. I’ve answered every phone call. There has not been a single thing they’ve asked of me that I failed to do. Everything they asked, I say, ‘Yes, yes, yes, yes.’”

Their asylum appeal was denied in 2023, but they’ve had a separate application pending for U nonimmigrant status, also known as a U-visa. The program grants legal status for noncitizens and qualifying family members who have been victims of certain crimes while living in the United States, according to ICE. Applicants can still be granted a U-visa even if they have a removal order or check-in agreement with ICE.

The family’s U-visa application is still pending.

All this comes as President Donald Trump broadens his attacks on the noncitizen community, with senior ICE officials urging officers to increase arrest numbers to meet a quota of 3,000 arrests per day. One of Trump’s biggest campaign promises was to carry out “the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America.”

Related

Related

Related

Follow CityBeat’s staff news writer Madeline Fening on Instagram. Got a news tip? Email mfening@citybeat.com.

Related Stories

This article appears in Jun 11-24, 2025.