15-05-2025
Toddler held in U.S. reunited with her mother in Venezuela after parents deported
May 14 (UPI) -- A 2-year-old kept in U.S. government custody after her parents were deported was reunited with her mother in Venezuela on Wednesday.
Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal arrived in the morning at Simon Bolivar International Airport near Caracas on a flight from the United States, CNN reported. She was among the group of Venezuelans who returned to the Central American nation.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro posted video on Facebook of the reunion. She is seen being carried by lady Cilia Flores then handed over to the toddler's mother, Yorley Inciarte at the presidential palace in Caracas. The child's grandmother also was on hand.
Yorley Inciarte, 20, was deported on April 25 from the United States, and her partner eventually was sent to a notorious prison on El Salavador on March 30.
Maduro posted on Facebook: "The girl loved by all, miracle has been consumed again. First and foremost, thank God for bringing #Maikelys into her mother's arms. Very soon we will also rescue hisBVenezuela Analysis reported.
Escalona was sent to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador. Inciarte was deported without her daughter to Venezuela.
"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 on April 26. "The child's mother, Yorely Escarleth Bernal Inciarte, oversees recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution."
Inciarte told ABC News last week: "Everything is false. 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."
In May 2024, the three-member family sought asylum, according to a court document filed by legal advocacy groups.
The mother was held in a detention center for several months in Texas, and her daughter was in custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. She asked for a deportation order so she could be reunited with their child. But it was denied.
"When my partner and my daughter arrive here, the only thing I [will] think about is staying here in my country," Inciarte told ABC News last week. "Because the only one who supported me and fought alongside me was my country, no one else."
In July, he received a deportation order by the Biden administration. The couple had weekly, in-person visits with their daughter between October and March, Espinoza said.
On March 29, Espinoza was sent to a naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The next day he was flown to El Salvador.
Since mid-March, 252 Venezuelan nationals have been expelled under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act based on allegations of gang affiliation. But most of them had no criminal record in the U.S., and the gang accusations were mainly based on profiling, such as tattoos.
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, said the Trump administration is paying $15 million to house hundreds of prisoners in El Salvador.
He visited his constituent, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old El Salvadorian national, on April 17.
