Julio Alfredo De Ávila Hernández, who worked as a driver in Guadalajara, disappeared in Jalisco, Mexico, ten years ago after a cartel forced him into running packages and threatened to kill his family if he quit. His mother, Blanca Hernández, 59, says a hitman began following Julio and that he had no way out. Julio's parents and siblings later fled to the United States and applied for asylum, but an immigration judge ruled in April that they must continue their asylum process in Ecuador, Honduras, or Guatemala instead of remaining in the U.S. The family has filed an appeal to try to stay; Julio's sister, Alondra De Ávila, 26, who crossed the border with her four-year-old son in 2024 to turn themselves in to immigration authorities, said, "We want to stay here. I don't want my son to live what I lived."