A Vermont family came to the US legally from Nicaragua. Now, they've chosen to self-deport amid Trump's immigration policies.
In a quiet moment after the ceremony, Andrea, 19, reflected on the words of comfort the two heard from their teachers and friends. 'They always say: 'I wish you could stay.'
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She then paused for a moment. 'Wow, I feel like it's just ... an end.'
Andrea Chavarría, 19, became emotional while talking about her situation over lunch at her uncle's home where she and her family have lived since arriving legally in the United States through the CHNV program over a year ago.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
The Chavarría family came to the United States legally in 2024 during one of the largest immigration surges in American history, and just as a
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Trump officials say they hope to prod as many newcomers as possible to leave voluntarily. And in the case of the Chavarrías, it worked.
Deciding to leave wasn't easy, though, because the Chavarrías had mostly felt warmly embraced by their neighbors in small-town Vermont.
The girls' uncle, Wilmer Chavarría, has lived in the United States for more than 15 years. He attended college in Indiana, became a citizen, had a turn as a star teacher and principal in New Mexico, and then was hired as school superintendent in Winooski, a small city neighboring Burlington.
The girls's father, Bernardino, and Wilmer are close. As children they lived in a refugee camp on the border with Honduras in the
Nahomy Chavarría, 18, sat on her bed and did her makeup as she and her sister Andrea, 19, got ready for school in the room that they share. It was the last week of school for the sisters.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
The sisters boarded the school bus together on what would be the last Monday they would attend high school in the United States before choosing to self-deport with their family back to Nicaragua.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
For Wilmer, it was never a question of whether he would help his brother and his family, but how. The opportunity arose in the form of a Biden-era humanitarian program, known as CHNV, that
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Bernardino and his wife, Auxiliadora Amador, got jobs as custodians for a nearby school district, and Bernardino also became a multilingual liaison at another school district. They applied for legal permission to build a future here.
For the sisters,
the relocation was a huge leap: 2,000 miles away from their grandparents, children from their parents' previous marriages, the house they grew up in, and a tropical climate, to a world of English speakers and shockingly cold temperatures during Vermont's stout winters.
'It was a hard year,' Nahomy, 18, said.
But they leaned on each other, their parents, and uncles for support.
The girls enrolled in the local high school, sometimes staying up until very late to finish homework, and meticulously studying English. They made friends, won over teachers, and got jobs at the local supermarket.
And they began to entertain dreams: Andrea wanted to go to veterinary school in the United States, turning her love of animals into a profession. Nahomy aimed to go to college and study civil engineering and use her education to build affordable housing for underserved communities.
'We are always trying to understand, trying to not make mistakes,' Andrea said. 'We wanted [the US] to know that we are glad that we are here.'
When Trump was elected, the family was nervous but tried to stay positive. They were here legally, after all.
Bernardino Chavarría and his daughter Nahomy, 18, passed beneath a giant American flag painted by her classmates that read, 'The American Dream,' at Champlain Valley Union High School. Teachers and administrators scrambled to put together a graduation for the sisters.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
Andrea Chavarría, 19, posed for a portrait with her diploma after a small graduation ceremony held solely for her and her sister. 'This is something that they did, to make us feel like we maybe deserve to be here,' Andrea said of her teachers. 'Now, even if I need to go, I will tell this story to my friends, and say, 'People made me feel welcome.''
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
But it seemed that with every new immigration directive, the Trump administration was pushing immigrants further away: issuing executive orders that suspended refugee resettlement and attempted to end birthright citizenship; dramatically ramping up immigration enforcement and targeting jurisdictions that limited cooperation with ICE; stripping away legal status from international students.
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Then, on the evening of March 21, Bernardino Chavarría sent a message to their household family group chat. It was a link to an article. The Trump administration planned to revoke the legal status of anyone here legally under the CHNV program.
That gave the Chavarría family barely a month before they would lose their legal status on April 24.
Andrea cried when she heard. 'We had plans,' she said. 'I was dreaming of what I could do.'
A shocked silence descended on the family as they tried to process the news. A day or two later, Wilmer Chavarría told his brother: 'Dino, let's talk about what's going to happen.'
The family congregated around the dining room table where they had shared so many meals, watching in awe as the Vermont seasons shifted, the leaves turning an orange red, then layers of snow blanketing the grass. But that evening, as the sun went down, it was unclear how many nights they had left together.
Nahomy Chavarría (left) embraced her sister Andrea during a reception held for them after a special commencement exercise of the Champlain Valley Union High School.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
At first, Nahomy and Andrea were quiet as their father and uncle talked, but they soon chimed in.
They needed to be realistic. If they stayed here without permission, could the sisters graduate high school? Go to college and graduate school? Could they start professional lives here?
Also, could the family keep their jobs here? Would Andrea even be able to adopt the dog she had always wanted?
The administration, Andrea said, was 'basically pushing you to be illegal.'
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Wilmer initially wanted them to stay but also understood this was something his brother, sister-in-law, and two nieces had to figure out for themselves. He would support them no matter what.
It took several days to reach a decision. There didn't seem to be a realistic path ahead for the Chavarrías in the United States. They didn't want to live like that, without lawful status, in perpetual fear of being detained, unable to legally work or study.
They chose to return to Nicaragua.
'It wasn't only about the parole program being terminated for everybody on a specific date,' Wilmer Chavarría said. 'It was also that the conditions were being created so that it would be impossible to stay.'
When a federal judge in Boston temporarily blocked elimination of the parole in April, the family decided to leave anyway. The climate in the United States had shifted and their future felt too tenuous. Their applications for immigration relief had stalled, as the Trump administration stopped processing them. They were at risk of losing their work permits.
To the family, Wilmer said, the message from the administration was obvious: 'We don't want you.'
Cyrus Dudgeon (left) and his husband Wilmer Chavarría joked with their niece Nahomy Chavarría as the family ate dinner together to celebrate Nahomy's and her sister Andrea's graduation from high school. Wilmer and Cyrus had worked hard to bring their family here, rearranging their lives to take them in.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
Andrea Chavarría dug through her suitcase to find a bottle of her perfume so she could spray it on a teddy bear she was leaving behind for her boyfriend before the family headed to the airport to return to Nicaragua.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
On April 23, the day before the Trump administration's initial deadline for those here under the CHNV program to leave the country, the family loaded more than a half-dozen suitcases and backpacks into their cars and made their way to Burlington Airport.
Earlier, Andrea placed a stuffed teddy bear, spritzed with her perfume, in the mailbox of her uncle's home, a parting keepsake for her boyfriend, a tall blue-eyed young man she'd met in Vermont. On her wrist, she wore a gold bracelet he had given her the day before, engraved with his term of endearment for her: 'Princess.'
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Wilmer Chavarría had decided to travel
to Nicaragua
with them. His husband, Dudgeon, saw them off at the airport. Dudgeon had known them for years, as he and Wilmer have been together since college. In the past few years, he had become particularly close to the girls; they called him 'uncle' without hesitation. He was always thoughtful with them, driving them to appointments at school and helping with their English homework when they needed it.
'Of course I'm sad, but mostly angry,' Dudgeon said as he stood by the entrance of the security line at the airport. 'It's going to be weird being in that big house,' he said, his voice trailing off.
It seemed hard for him to say out loud the next words: without them.
As they prepared to enter the security line, each member of the family turned to hug Dudgeon goodbye. He watched as Wilmer, the girls, and their parents disappeared behind the maze of TSA security machines.
Perhaps one day, their high school graduation in Vermont would fade in memory, the end of a long-ago dream. But on that spring afternoon in April, it meant everything.
The sisters were just normal teenagers, getting ready together in the bedroom they shared, agonizing over their outfits. Andrea doted over the cat-eye eyeliner she applied to her sister's eyelids and curled her own hair carefully as Bad Bunny's new album played in the background. They practiced walking in high heels.
Their teachers and school administrators made sure they would have the chance to walk across the graduation stage, like every other senior.
Lacey Richards, the girls' social studies teacher, addressed the gathering of about 40 students, friends, and family members.
'Sometimes, as teachers, we're lucky enough to help our students find themselves. And sometimes, as teachers, they help us find ourselves,' Richards said.
The girls had one particularly exceptional quality, Richards told the audience: a 'deep desire to make this world a better place than the one they have been handed.'
There were laughs and tears as they hugged their mentors and loved ones. Then, everyone gathered in a classroom for empanadas and ice cream.
Cyrus Dudgeon embraced his niece Nahomy Chavarría inside the Burlington International Airport as he said goodbye to the family.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
Nahomy Chavarría sat on a luggage cart as she waited for her parents and uncle to sort out their boarding tickets inside the Burlington International Airport before starting their journey back to Nicaragua.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
Andrea's boyfriend sat beside her, often with his arm around her shoulder. Richards, the social studies teacher, made the girls promise to write. 'I'm going to miss you a lot,' she told them, blowing them a kiss as she left the party.
Andrea Chavarría tried to make peace with leaving, but now she felt overwhelmed by her teacher's show of care.
'This is something that they did to make us feel like we maybe deserve to be here,' Andrea said, holding back tears.
As the celebration ended, Nahomy Chavarría strolled with her father along a hallway painted with a massive American flag, its stripes decorated with quotes from American writers, scholars, and civil rights activists. Among them was an excerpt from Thomas Paine's essays, The Crisis XIII.
'Never, I say, had a country so many openings to happiness as this. Her setting out in life, like the rising of a fair morning, was unclouded and promising. Her cause was good. Her principles just and liberal,' Paine wrote. 'Everything about her wore the mark of honor.'
Nahomy walked past the flag, and out the doors of her high school, likely for the last time.
Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio can be reached at
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