HOMESTEAD, FLA. (WSVN) - A Homestead family is thanking their congresswoman for helping them get back into the country after they were stranded in South America and unable to find a flight home.
Speaking from his home on Thursday, Ralph Rico said he and his family are relieved to be back in the U.S.
“Everyone’s healthy. We’re staying home,” he said.
Rico said they spent weeks trying to get back from Peru after flights were cancelled and the borders closed.
“I was on the phone calling the airlines, but there wasn’t any room, and that’s when we noticed, ‘OK, we’re stuck,'” he said
To make matters worse, Rico was running low on medication.
“Hopefully I don’t get stopped by the military,” he said during a cellphone video he recorded in Peru.
“I tried calling the embassy. Nobody would pick up at the embassy. State Department, there was just crickets,” said Rico.
But the family’s fortune changed after a call to U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.
“In the middle of such a terrible crisis we’re all facing, this was such wonderful news,” said Mucarsel-Powell.
The congresswoman, who represents Florida’s 26th District, got the wheels turning and arranged a flight to Washington, D.C.
At first, only Rico’s wife and children were on the manifest, but after a last-minute phone call, he found out he was going home as well.
“‘Your wife is in another bus around the corner. You’re going to join her in another bus, and you’re going home.’ I was like, ‘Wow,'” said Rico.
After flying to Dulles International Airport, the Ricos rented a car and drove 16 hours back to Homestead.
Rico said he’s happy and thankful to the people who got his family back on U.S. soil.
“Thank you so much. God bless you and your staff,” Rico said to Mucarsel-Powell.
“These are the stories that keep us going, right? It speaks volumes to the staff that I have,” said Mucarsel-Powell.
The State Department said it has repatriated more than 9,000 Americans from 28 countries to date.
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