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It was a cold February night and the ground was covered with snow when Juan, Carmen and their 11-year-old son Jose slipped across the U.S. border into British Columbia.

Carmen is seven months pregnant and she dreaded being separated from her children if she was deported from the States, a possibility that had suddenly become very real after the election of Donald Trump. And so, the Honduran family decided to try their luck in Canada, where they had heard the government was more welcoming to refugees.

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“We had to run. We ran in danger of being caught,” Carmen said of her arrival in B.C.

The family has been here a week and is seeking legal aid to file a refugee claim next week. Postmedia News agreed to use only their first names for this story.

Speaking through a translator, the family said they left Honduras because Jose had no future there, except to be forcibly recruited into one of the violent gangs that control much of the country. The family had lost their home when they could no longer afford to pay a “war tax” to the local criminals — they were given just two days to leave or they would be killed.