BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Sixteen-year-old Daniela Fernandez just wants to get back to Massachusetts -- and soon, she might be able to do just that.
The teen has been living in Revere for the last five years with her aunt Lorena Fernandez, who is her legal guardian. She has a green card, but has been stuck in her native Colombia for 7 weeks after visiting the country for a relative's funeral.
"It's just difficult to be apart from my aunt because she's like a mother to me," Fernandez said. "And [to not have] her support to get out of this, it's kind of hard."
The two went to the country together to attend the service, but Daniela lost her green card in the airport in Medellin and wasn't able to come back to the U.S. with her aunt.
She is currently staying at her grandparents house, as the Embassy in Bogota has not been able to address her situation because of halted services during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Fernandez said she has her school-provided laptop with her, and has been having trouble trying to keep up with her classes from over two thousand miles away.
"The internet is really bad," she said. "Sometimes my Wi-Fi is just not working."
According to her immigration attorney Joseph Molina Flynn, Fernandez only got a response from the embassy after Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren's office received word of her case.
“I tried to call every phone line at the embassy and was told they only had services for citizens, not for green card holders," Flynn said. "It wasn’t until Senator Warren’s office got involved, we were finally able to secure an interview for her."
The interview with embassy officials is expected to take place at the end of February to discuss Fernandez's return.
Fernandez said she is grateful to the Senator for her help in moving the case forward.
WBZ NewsRadio's Kim Tunnicliffe (@KimWBZ) reports.
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Written by Rachel Armany
(Photo: Getty Images)