Latest news with #Escalona
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Yahoo
Deported Venezuelan mother accuses US government of 'kidnapping' her child
Yorley Inciarte, the Venezuelan mother who was deported last week to her home country without her 2-year-old daughter and whose partner was sent to El Salvador, is accusing the U.S. government of "kidnapping" her child. "My daughter was born in Venezuela, not in the United States," Inciarte told ABC News in Spanish. "They are criminals, because they are kidnapping Venezuelans, a 2-year-old girl." After being in detention for nearly 10 months, Inciarte was deported last week to Venezuela without her daughter Maikelys Antonella Espinoza, who is not a U.S. citizen. Her partner, Maiker Espinoza Escalona, was sent to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador on March 30 under Title 8, which covers the deportation of migrants deemed to be removable. MORE: He was sent to El Salvador; she was sent to Venezuela. Their 2-year-old is still in the US The Department of Homeland Security has labeled Inciarte and Escalona as "Tren de Aragua parents," alleging the two are members of the Venezuelan criminal gang. "The child's father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona is a lieutenant of Tren De Aragua who oversees homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, sex trafficking and operates a torture house," DHS said in a statement last week. "The child's mother, Yorely Escarleth Bernal Inciarte oversees recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution." The statement by DHS was posted online in response to claims from Venezuelan government officials also accusing the Trump administration of kidnapping the 2-year old. "Everything is false," Inciarte told ABC News in response to DHS characterizations. "Here I am waiting for the evidence they have because if they are accusing me, it's because they have proof of what they are saying -- but here I am waiting." DHS officials did not provide any evidence of the allegations against Inciarte and Escalona. When asked for comment, the agency sent ABC News a statement they published last week listing the allegations against the couple. An ABC News review of county and federal records in the U.S. found no cases associated with Escalona. ABC News located a federal criminal case against Inciarte for improper entry into the U.S. in 2024; according to the documents, Inciarte pleaded guilty and was sentenced to time served and one business day. Venezuelan documents provided by their family appear to show the two do not have criminal records in their home country "I don't want any mother to go through what I'm being accused of," Inciarte told ABC News. Inciarte, Escalona and their child entered the U.S. last year seeking asylum, and surrendered to authorities who separated the three of them, Inciarte told ABC News. Inciarte and Escalona were placed in separate detention centers in Texas and their daughter was placed in government custody, said Inciarte, who told ABC News that she was able to speak with her daughter on video calls and with Escalona over the phone. The two adults were placed in asylum proceedings but they eventually asked for a deportation order so they could be reunited with their child, one of their attorneys told ABC News. Since arriving back in Venezuela, Inciarte said she has received support from her country's government, including Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. "Her husband was unjustly sent to a concentration camp in El Salvador," Maduro said on Thursday during a speech alongside Inciarte. "There he has no contact with lawyers, or a judge and he has committed no crime in that country." "Sooner rather than later, we are going to rescue our girl Maikelys Espinoza and the 253 kidnapped in El Salvador safe and sound," Maduro said, referring to more than 200 alleged Venezuelan gang members who were send to CECOT by the Trump administration under the Alien Enemies Act. "When my partner and my daughter arrive here, the only thing I think about is staying here in my country, because the only one who supported me and fought alongside me was my country, no one else," Inciarte told ABC News. "And I will never, ever abandon my homeland. I won't even mention the United States, it will never come up. Because what I experienced in that country was so horrible, I don't even want to talk about how bad it is." MORE: Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador despite order barring removal to third countries Inciarte told ABC News that before she was deported, she was told her daughter was going to be deported with her. "An officer came to me with a document saying that my daughter was going to be sent to Venezuela with me," Inciarte said. "But it was all a lie because when the plane arrived, my daughter wasn't there. I asked ICE, and they didn't say anything. I got upset." "I was begging them to please let me off and that I would wait at the [detention] center, no matter how long it took, but I wanted to leave with my child." Inciarte said. Inciarte said that if she could give a message to her daughter, who is under the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services in Texas, she would tell her that they will never be separated again. "What I would say to her is that we will never, ever be separated again," Inciarte said. "Never ever, my daughter, I assure you. We will fight for your dad. And we will be united as a family in love, just like before." Deported Venezuelan mother accuses US government of 'kidnapping' her child originally appeared on
05-05-2025
- Politics
Deported Venezuelan mother accuses US government of 'kidnapping' her child
Yorley Inciarte, the Venezuelan mother who was deported last week to her home country without her 2-year-old daughter and whose partner was sent to El Salvador, is accusing the U.S. government of "kidnapping" her child. "My daughter was born in Venezuela, not in the United States," Inciarte told ABC News in Spanish. "They are criminals, because they are kidnapping Venezuelans, a 2-year-old girl." After being in detention for nearly 10 months, Inciarte was deported last week to Venezuela without her daughter Maikelys Antonella Espinoza, who is not a U.S. citizen. Her partner, Maiker Espinoza Escalona, was sent to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador on March 30 under Title 8, which covers the deportation of migrants deemed to be removable. The Department of Homeland Security has labeled Inciarte and Escalona as "Tren de Aragua parents," alleging the two are members of the Venezuelan criminal gang. "The child's father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona is a lieutenant of Tren De Aragua who oversees homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, sex trafficking and operates a torture house," DHS said in a statement last week. "The child's mother, Yorely Escarleth Bernal Inciarte oversees recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution." The statement by DHS was posted online in response to claims from Venezuelan government officials also accusing the Trump administration of kidnapping the 2-year old. "Everything is false," Inciarte told ABC News in response to DHS characterizations. "Here I am waiting for the evidence they have because if they are accusing me, it's because they have proof of what they are saying -- but here I am waiting." DHS officials did not provide any evidence of the allegations against Inciarte and Escalona. When asked for comment, the agency sent ABC News a statement they published last week listing the allegations against the couple. An ABC News review of county and federal records in the U.S. found no cases associated with Escalona. ABC News located a federal criminal case against Inciarte for improper entry into the U.S. in 2024; according to the documents, Inciarte pleaded guilty and was sentenced to time served and one business day. Venezuelan documents provided by their family appear to show the two do not have criminal records in their home country "I don't want any mother to go through what I'm being accused of," Inciarte told ABC News. Inciarte, Escalona and their child entered the U.S. last year seeking asylum, and surrendered to authorities who separated the three of them, Inciarte told ABC News. Inciarte and Escalona were placed in separate detention centers in Texas and their daughter was placed in government custody, said Inciarte, who told ABC News that she was able to speak with her daughter on video calls and with Escalona over the phone. The two adults were placed in asylum proceedings but they eventually asked for a deportation order so they could be reunited with their child, one of their attorneys told ABC News. Since arriving back in Venezuela, Inciarte said she has received support from her country's government, including Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. "Her husband was unjustly sent to a concentration camp in El Salvador," Maduro said on Thursday during a speech alongside Inciarte. "There he has no contact with lawyers, or a judge and he has committed no crime in that country." "Sooner rather than later, we are going to rescue our girl Maikelys Espinoza and the 253 kidnapped in El Salvador safe and sound," Maduro said, referring to more than 200 alleged Venezuelan gang members who were send to CECOT by the Trump administration under the Alien Enemies Act. "When my partner and my daughter arrive here, the only thing I think about is staying here in my country, because the only one who supported me and fought alongside me was my country, no one else," Inciarte told ABC News. "And I will never, ever abandon my homeland. I won't even mention the United States, it will never come up. Because what I experienced in that country was so horrible, I don't even want to talk about how bad it is." Inciarte told ABC News that before she was deported, she was told her daughter was going to be deported with her. "An officer came to me with a document saying that my daughter was going to be sent to Venezuela with me," Inciarte said. "But it was all a lie because when the plane arrived, my daughter wasn't there. I asked ICE, and they didn't say anything. I got upset." "I was begging them to please let me off and that I would wait at the [detention] center, no matter how long it took, but I wanted to leave with my child." Inciarte said. Inciarte said that if she could give a message to her daughter, who is under the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services in Texas, she would tell her that they will never be separated again. "What I would say to her is that we will never, ever be separated again," Inciarte said. "Never ever, my daughter, I assure you. We will fight for your dad. And we will be united as a family in love, just like before."
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Yahoo
Deported Venezuelan mother accuses US government of 'kidnapping' her child
Yorley Inciarte, the Venezuelan mother who was deported last week to her home country without her 2-year-old daughter and whose partner was sent to El Salvador, is accusing the U.S. government of "kidnapping" her child. "My daughter was born in Venezuela, not in the United States," Inciarte told ABC News in Spanish. "They are criminals, because they are kidnapping Venezuelans, a 2-year-old girl." After being in detention for nearly 10 months, Inciarte was deported last week to Venezuela without her daughter Maikelys Antonella Espinoza, who is not a U.S. citizen. Her partner, Maiker Espinoza Escalona, was sent to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador on March 30 under Title 8, which covers the deportation of migrants deemed to be removable. MORE: He was sent to El Salvador; she was sent to Venezuela. Their 2-year-old is still in the US The Department of Homeland Security has labeled Inciarte and Escalona as "Tren de Aragua parents," alleging the two are members of the Venezuelan criminal gang. "The child's father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona is a lieutenant of Tren De Aragua who oversees homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, sex trafficking and operates a torture house," DHS said in a statement last week. "The child's mother, Yorely Escarleth Bernal Inciarte oversees recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution." The statement by DHS was posted online in response to claims from Venezuelan government officials also accusing the Trump administration of kidnapping the 2-year old. "Everything is false," Inciarte told ABC News in response to DHS characterizations. "Here I am waiting for the evidence they have because if they are accusing me, it's because they have proof of what they are saying -- but here I am waiting." DHS officials did not provide any evidence of the allegations against Inciarte and Escalona. When asked for comment, the agency sent ABC News a statement they published last week listing the allegations against the couple. An ABC News review of county and federal records in the U.S. found no cases associated with Escalona. ABC News located a federal criminal case against Inciarte for improper entry into the U.S. in 2024; according to the documents, Inciarte pleaded guilty and was sentenced to time served and one business day. Venezuelan documents provided by their family appear to show the two do not have criminal records in their home country "I don't want any mother to go through what I'm being accused of," Inciarte told ABC News. Inciarte, Escalona and their child entered the U.S. last year seeking asylum, and surrendered to authorities who separated the three of them, Inciarte told ABC News. Inciarte and Escalona were placed in separate detention centers in Texas and their daughter was placed in government custody, said Inciarte, who told ABC News that she was able to speak with her daughter on video calls and with Escalona over the phone. The two adults were placed in asylum proceedings but they eventually asked for a deportation order so they could be reunited with their child, one of their attorneys told ABC News. Since arriving back in Venezuela, Inciarte said she has received support from her country's government, including Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. "Her husband was unjustly sent to a concentration camp in El Salvador," Maduro said on Thursday during a speech alongside Inciarte. "There he has no contact with lawyers, or a judge and he has committed no crime in that country." "Sooner rather than later, we are going to rescue our girl Maikelys Espinoza and the 253 kidnapped in El Salvador safe and sound," Maduro said, referring to more than 200 alleged Venezuelan gang members who were send to CECOT by the Trump administration under the Alien Enemies Act. "When my partner and my daughter arrive here, the only thing I think about is staying here in my country, because the only one who supported me and fought alongside me was my country, no one else," Inciarte told ABC News. "And I will never, ever abandon my homeland. I won't even mention the United States, it will never come up. Because what I experienced in that country was so horrible, I don't even want to talk about how bad it is." MORE: Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador despite order barring removal to third countries Inciarte told ABC News that before she was deported, she was told her daughter was going to be deported with her. "An officer came to me with a document saying that my daughter was going to be sent to Venezuela with me," Inciarte said. "But it was all a lie because when the plane arrived, my daughter wasn't there. I asked ICE, and they didn't say anything. I got upset." "I was begging them to please let me off and that I would wait at the [detention] center, no matter how long it took, but I wanted to leave with my child." Inciarte said. Inciarte said that if she could give a message to her daughter, who is under the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services in Texas, she would tell her that they will never be separated again. "What I would say to her is that we will never, ever be separated again," Inciarte said. "Never ever, my daughter, I assure you. We will fight for your dad. And we will be united as a family in love, just like before." Deported Venezuelan mother accuses US government of 'kidnapping' her child originally appeared on
The Guardian
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Venezuelan detainees at Texas center spell out SOS with their bodies
Detainees at the Bluebonnet immigrant detention center in the small city of Anson, Texas, sent the outside world a message this week: SOS. With a Reuters drone flying nearby, 31 men formed the letters in the dirt yard of the facility on Monday. Ten days earlier, dozens of Venezuelan detainees at the center were given notices by immigration officials that alleged they were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and subject to deportation under a wartime law, according to documents shown to Reuters, recorded video calls and court proceedings. The families of seven detainees interviewed by Reuters said they were not gang members and that they refused to sign the document. Nevertheless, hours later on 18 April, they were loaded onto a bus bound for nearby Abilene Regional airport, according to the American Civil Liberties Union and family members, before the bus was turned around and sent back to the detention center. That night, the supreme court temporarily blocked their deportations. The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the halted deportations. It was a reprieve for the group of Venezuelans detained at Bluebonnet, who still face being potentially sent to Cecot, the notorious maximum security prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration has sent at least 137 Venezuelans under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, if the supreme court lifts the block. The Bluebonnet facility, located 200 miles (322km) west of Dallas, is privately run by the Management and Training Corporation under a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Named after the state flower of Texas, it has held an average of 846 detainees a day in fiscal year 2025, according to Ice detention data. Denied access to the Bluebonnet facility by Ice, Reuters flew a small plane over the center last week as well as a drone nearby on 28 April to gather aerial images of the detainees being held there. Some of the detainees photographed by Reuters were wearing red jumpsuits designating them as high risk. Millan was moved to Bluebonnet in mid-April from the Stewart detention center in Lumpkin, Georgia, where he had been held since he was arrested by immigration agents in the Atlanta suburbs on 12 March, according to a senior Department of Homeland Security official. Reuters could not find a criminal record for Millan, who had been working in construction. The DHS official said Millan was a 'documented' member of Tren de Aragua, but provided no evidence. The DHS official said Ice detained Escalona in January 2025, after he was arrested by local Texas police for evading arrest in a vehicle. He arrived at Bluebonnet after he was returned from the US migrant detention facility in Guantanamo Bay in February. The DHS official said Escalona was a 'self-admitted' Tren de Aragua member but did not provide evidence of the claim. During a phone interview from Bluebonnet, Escalona said he had no ties to Tren de Aragua or any gang. He was a police officer in Venezuela, he said. When they detained him, US authorities took his phone and he suspects they saw photos of him making hand gestures that he said were common in Venezuela. 'They're making false accusations about me,' he said. 'I don't belong to any gang.' Escalona said that he has asked to return voluntarily to Venezuela but was denied. 'I fear for my life here,' he said. 'I want to go to Venezuela.' Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have come to the United States over the past few years, fleeing economic collapse and what critics call an authoritarian crackdown under President Nicolás Maduro. Under the administration of Joe Biden, many were given temporary humanitarian protections that the Trump administration is trying to revoke. Since their aborted deportation, the men have been on edge, their families say. In Millan's dorm, he and some of the other Venezuelan men take turns sleeping so that they can alert family members if immigration officers come to deport them, according to Millan's wife, who asked not to be named for fear of being targeted by immigration officials. One day last week, he told her the men in the dorm refused to go out into the yard because they were worried they would be put on another bus and sent to El Salvador. 'He is desperate,' Millan's wife said. 'He told me that when he walked out onto the field, he sat down and looked at the sky and asked God to get him out of there soon.' In one recent video call, Millan told his wife that they have not been given much food, and he tries to sleep more so that he is not so hungry, she said, something that other detainees' relatives echoed. A spokesperson for Management and Training Corporation, which runs the facility, said 'all detainees housed at Bluebonnet receive meals based on a menu that has been approved by a certified dietitian, ensuring the recommended daily caloric intake is met.' In a statement, DHS said it 'uses multiple strategies to manage capacity while maintaining compliance with federal standards and our commitment to humane treatment'. On Saturday, an immigration official visited Escalona's dorm and answered some of the detainees' questions, according to an audio recording of the visit obtained by Reuters. The men, talking over each other frantically, wanted to know why the government was trying to send them to El Salvador and what was happening with their immigration court dates. The official explained that the US had tried to remove them under the Alien Enemies Act, which was a separate process from their scheduled immigration court hearings. 'If he gets removed under the Alien Enemies Act, then that court date doesn't exist, he'll never have that court date,' the official said in English to someone who was translating. Several of the men wanted to know how it was possible for them to be classified as 'alien enemies' when they were not gang members and had committed no crime. 'If I don't have a criminal record in the three countries in which I have lived in, how are they going to send me to El Salvador?' one of the men in the recording asked. Reuters was not immediately able to establish his identity. The official said he was not involved in the intelligence gathering. Several of the men had court hearings in their immigration cases last week and advocates scrambled to find lawyers for them. Millan has a pending asylum case and his next hearing is scheduled for May 1, unless he is sent to El Salvador before then.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Two-year-old girl marooned in foster care in U.S. after parents deported to countries 1,500 miles apart
A two-year-old girl has been marooned in foster care in the U.S. after her Venezuelan parents were deported to countries 1,500 miles apart. Yorely Bernal Inciarte and Maiker Espinoza Escalona arrived with their child Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal in Texas on May 14 last year. Neither held valid entry documents so they immediately surrendered to immigration authorities, according to ABC News. After being held in separate detention facilities in the Lone Star State for several months, able to communicate with one another only by phone, Inciarte was abruptly returned to Venezuela earlier this month – but without her daughter. She was subsequently shocked to learn that Escalona had been sent first to Guantanamo Bay and then to the notorious CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador on March 30, meaning their child was without access to either parent. 'When I saw him in a video in El Salvador, I was in shock,' Inciarte said. 'I couldn't stop crying and yelling… I wouldn't wish this on any mother.' The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has since said the child is in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement and has been placed with a foster family. The family's plight has moved Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro to accuse Washington of engaging in 'abduction' and his Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello to allege on a domestic radio show: 'The U.S. government is robbing Venezuelan children.' But the DHS has justified its actions by claiming that Inciarte and Escalona are 'Tren de Aragua parents,' alleging that the couple are members of the feared Venezuelan criminal organization. 'Despite claims from the Venezuelan government that the U.S. 'kidnapped' a child, the truth is DHS took action because both her parents are part of Tren De Aragua,' it said in a statement issued over the weekend. 'The child's father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona is a lieutenant of Tren De Aragua who oversees homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, sex trafficking and operates a torture house. 'The child's mother, Yorely Escarleth Bernal Inciarte oversees recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution. These criminal illegal aliens entered the country illegally and had final orders of removal from a judge.' Inciarte, her attorney and her family deny the accusations levelled against her by the DHS. 'If it's true, release the evidence,' she challenged the Trump administration. 'Release the proof that we are Tren de Aragua. They took a child away from their mother and they're telling lies about us.' ABC reports that the couple have no criminal record in their own country and have no county or federal records in the U.S. beyond the federal criminal case against Inciarte for improper entry last year. Inciarte's mother Raida said she believed her daughter and Escalona are being accused of belonging to Tren de Aragua because of their tattoos but denied any association with the gang: 'My daughter has a tattoo of the year I was born and the year her dad was born. 'She also has the name of her son and some flowers on her chest. Maiker is a tattoo artist and he would do her tattoos.' Raida has previously said of the Trump administration: 'They are liars. I cannot believe that half of Venezuela is Tren de Aragua. That can't be.' Escalona's sister Marly said her sibling was a barber by profession, adding: 'My brother is a 25-year-old guy, a dreamer, like all Venezuelans. 'He loves cutting hair. He finished high school, he took courses in barbering and set up his barbershop in Venezuela. But things got a bit tough in Venezuela, so he emigrated to have a better life.'
