Venezuela demands return of toddler left behind in Trump deportation blitz

Protesters march through the streets to demonstrate against U.S. President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office.

When Yorely Bernal was deported from the United States to Venezuela last week, she expected to land with her 2-year-old daughter, Maikelis Antonella, by her side. But as she video-called her mother moments after arriving in Caracas, she broke down in tears. The child was not with her.

“Where is the girl?” Raida Inciarte, Bernal’s mother, asked, fighting emotion. “They didn’t give her to you?”

The Washington Post reported that instead of returning with her mother, Antonella remains detained in government custody in El Paso, Texas—without immigration status, a deportation order, or a clear path forward. Her father, Maiker Espinoza Escalona, had been previously deported to El Salvador’s megaprison, severing the family unit entirely.

“This child is just … here,” said Imelda Maynard, legal director at Estrella del Paso, which offers legal aid to migrant children. “The government has her in this weird purgatory.”

A deportation drive tearing families apart

The toddler’s plight exemplifies the chaos and consequences of President Donald Trump’s accelerated deportation push, part of his administration’s promise to remove one million people in his first year back in office. In their race to deport, immigration officials have repeatedly bypassed due process, say lawyers, triggering family separations and denying parents the right to remain with or even say goodbye to their children.

Despite ICE and the Office of Refugee Resettlement policies that prioritize family unity, Antonella was not returned to her mother—even after Bernal signed a deportation agreement for them both. The Young Center, a child advocacy group advising the U.S. government on migrant custody, had recommended reunification. But in a rare move, the government ignored that guidance.

“How things have worked out is the single worst possible way they could have,” said Zoe Bowman, the family’s lawyer with Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.

Gang accusations, no evidence

The Trump administration justifies the separation by alleging that Espinoza is a gang lieutenant in Venezuela and that Bernal was involved in recruitment for criminal activities. However, no charges have been filed, and no evidence has been shared with the family’s legal team or The Washington Post. Both parents have no criminal record and were held in immigration detention throughout their time in the US.

“They are painting us as delinquents, and we are not,” Bernal said at a rally in Caracas. “I just ask the US government that they give me back my child.”

A child lost in the system

After crossing into El Paso in 2023, Bernal and Espinoza passed their initial asylum interviews and were placed in immigration proceedings. But they were later detained, and Antonella was

removed from their custody. Over time, she was shifted between three foster families and only granted 15-minute video visits once a week—visits that abruptly stopped when Espinoza was flown to El Salvador in a high-profile deportation touted by Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.

The mother was then transferred to a detention centre four hours away, cutting off access to her child. Despite plans to deport mother and daughter together, the toddler was removed from the flight manifest without explanation.

“She knows how to put on her shoes, she loves apples,” said Inciarte, who has video-chatted with the child more often than the girl’s parents have. “She saw a video of a girl playing the violin and now plays her toy violin in front of the screen.”

Venezuela pushes back

When Bernal arrived in Caracas, Venezuelan officials were puzzled to find Antonella’s name listed ahead of her mother’s on the deportee roster. It appeared she had been expected.

Since then, public pressure has mounted. Bernal and Inciarte travelled to the capital to meet with government officials, joining a May 1 rally demanding Antonella’s return and justice for Venezuelan migrants held in El Salvador. President Nicolás Maduro, appearing alongside Bernal, has publicly called for the child’s release.

“She is just a baby,” Inciarte said. “She needs her mother.”

Systemic concerns mount

Advocates in the US are alarmed by similar cases. Last week, lawyers documented US citizen children being removed to Honduras—including a 4-year-old girl with stage 4 cancer who was sent without her medication. A federal judge in Louisiana has scheduled a hearing this month to investigate the government’s handling of these cases.

“It’s clear officials skipped steps,” said Gracie Willis, a lawyer for one of the affected families. “We suspect the government just deported a US citizen with no meaningful process.”

For Bernal, the only thing that matters now is seeing her daughter again. Speaking from Caracas, she watched Antonella wave through a phone screen from nearly 3,000 miles away. At the end of the call, the toddler blew her mother a kiss. Bernal wept.