The Lopez brothers were 10 and 11, their lawyer said, when their mom brought them across the U.S. border in 2016. The family applied for asylum, claiming they were trying to escape violent gangs in El Salvador.
During the next nine years, Amoachi said immigration officials denied the brothers’ asylum request three times. But they continued to pursue other avenues to remain in the country and checked in regularly with immigration officials.
“They are good people,” the boys' mother, Alma Lopez, said through a translator.
Here illegally a decade and still refuses to speak English
Alma Lopez remains in the U.S. with another son who is said to be disabled.
They can be disabled in El Salvador
For now, the Lopez brothers have been living with a family friend in El Salvador, saying they are afraid to leave the home and are worried about their future plans to work as a welder or financial planner.
El Salvador’s homicide rate: As of May 11, 2025, the rate was estimated to be 1.20 per 100,000 inhabitants
New York: As of the latest data, New York City's homicide rate is 4.9 per 100,000 people
They are 400% less likely to be killed in El Salvador, they’re terrified they will actually have to work for a living instead of leeching off taxpayers in perpetuity
Their mother cares for them so little that she prefers to milk the comforts of the US rather than keep her family together, and dumped them on an old friend instead.
Cared enough to smuggle them over (unlikely to be her actual children), but then dumped them once her gibs were on the line.
Here illegally a decade and still refuses to speak English
They can be disabled in El Salvador
El Salvador’s homicide rate: As of May 11, 2025, the rate was estimated to be 1.20 per 100,000 inhabitants
New York: As of the latest data, New York City's homicide rate is 4.9 per 100,000 people
They are 400% less likely to be killed in El Salvador, they’re terrified they will actually have to work for a living instead of leeching off taxpayers in perpetuity
This tells me all I need to know.
Their mother cares for them so little that she prefers to milk the comforts of the US rather than keep her family together, and dumped them on an old friend instead.
Cared enough to smuggle them over (unlikely to be her actual children), but then dumped them once her gibs were on the line.
She has a “disabled” kid to anchor her. It sounds like the “long island” kids were shipped off to Georgia as well while the mom remained in New York.
The reverse. The mom lives in Georgia and she shipped the oldest two off to her "long distance boyfriend" in NY.