The two were on their way to reunite with Maddie’s mother in New Jersey on Tuesday night. It will be the first time the father, identified as “Mr. H.” in court, will meet his newborn son.

"Daddy, why are you crying?” the child asked as her father wept after the release.

They walked free a day after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that amid the pandemic, the same standards that apply to migrant children should apply to their parents — including prompt release from custody whenever possible.

Maddie had spent more time inside than any child currently held in the country’s three family detention centers; the two others are in Texas. A few months ago, federal immigration authorities had offered to release Maddie to her mother. But they would not free her father, which the family’s lawyers said made the overture merely a different form of family separation, one sure to inflict more harm on a suffering child.

On Tuesday evening, Maddie was enjoying a pineapple pizza at the office of one of her lawyers, Bridget Cambria, executive director of ALDEA – The People’s Justice Center in Reading. While at Berks, the girl had dreamed of devouring a hot pineapple pizza.