Baby took first steps, spoke first words while in US custody: report

A now 1-year-old child separated from his father at the U.S.-Mexico border reportedly took his first steps and said his first words while being housed at an immigrant shelter in the custody of the U.S. government.

Johan Bueso Montecinos was traveling to return to his parents in Honduras on Friday, five months after he arrived in the U.S., The Associated Press reported.

The child arrived with his father at the border, but the two were quickly apprehended by a Border Patrol agent.

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His father, Rolando Antonio Bueso Castillo, was deported. Agents told him he would be deported because it was the fourth time he had tried entering the U.S., the AP reported.

He told the outlet that immigration officials initially told him that he would be deported with his child, and later said the child would leave two weeks after him.

Johan’s appearance in court earlier this month made national headlines.

“I’m embarrassed to ask it, because I don’t know who you would explain it to, unless you think that a 1-year-old could learn immigration law,” the judge at the immigration hearing said.

The child was eventually granted a voluntary departure order that allows the U.S. government to fly him back to his family in Honduras.

The AP account of Johan’s court appearance was widely covered, and came amid a court order for the Trump administration to reunite immigrant families that were separated at the border.

The administration had until July 10 to reunite immigrant children under the age of 5 with their parents, but said it did not complete all possible reunifications until two days after the deadline.

Officials are now moving to reunite all immigrant children between the ages of 5 and 17 by a July 26 deadline.

The administration said in a court filing Thursday that it has reunited 364 of the 2,551 immigrant children so far.