{"id":293399,"date":"2025-04-29T16:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T16:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/29\/a-mother-and-father-were-deported-under-trump-but-what-happened-to-their-daughter\/"},"modified":"2025-04-29T16:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T16:35:10","slug":"a-mother-and-father-were-deported-under-trump-but-what-happened-to-their-daughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/29\/a-mother-and-father-were-deported-under-trump-but-what-happened-to-their-daughter\/","title":{"rendered":"A Mother and Father Were Deported Under Trump. But What Happened to Their Daughter?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/04\/27\/multimedia\/27int-venezuela-baby06-promo\/27int-venezuela-baby06-photo-qvlp-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"A Mother and Father Were Deported Under Trump. But What Happened to Their Daughter?\" title=\"A Mother and Father Were Deported Under Trump. But What Happened to Their Daughter?\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A Venezuelan family is calling for a 2-year-old to be returned to her mother after the U.S. authorities deported the mother to Venezuela on Friday without the child.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The girl\u2019s father was sent to a prison in El Salvador in March.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The toddler, Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal, remains in foster care in the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Officials said in a statement that the child was removed from her parents and from the manifest of her mother\u2019s deportation plane for her own \u201csafety and welfare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Trump administration claims the girl\u2019s parents are members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, but it has <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/15\/world\/americas\/trump-migrants-deportations.html\" title=\"\">not offered evidence to back this up<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The girl, known to many in her family as Antonella, is one of several children who have been swept up in President Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown in recent days. At <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/27\/us\/politics\/us-citizen-children-deported-honduras-trump.html\" title=\"\">least three children<\/a> who are U.S. citizens were sent to Honduras this month with their mothers, decisions protested by the families\u2019 lawyers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the case of the Venezuelan toddler, the girl\u2019s mother, Yorely Bernal, 20, had entered the United States with her partner, Maiker Espinoza, and their child in May 2024, while President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was still in office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There, according to the couple\u2019s relatives, the authorities told them their tattoos looked suspicious, took them into custody and sent the girl to foster care.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During Mr. Trump\u2019s first administration, family separations at the border <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/06\/14\/us\/protest-marches-family-separation.html\" title=\"\">drew anger<\/a> and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/06\/06\/us\/family-separations-migrants-court.html\" title=\"\">legal challenges<\/a>, and eventually ceased to be used as a blanket policy. But separations continued to take place in limited instances during the Biden administration when officials believed there was a threat to the child.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is unclear why officials separated the family members last year. Record searches indicate that neither parent has a criminal record in Venezuela or Peru, where they lived for several years, or in the United States, beyond their immigration offenses. In the United States the couple has lived only in immigration detention.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 2022, Mr. Espinoza, now 25, was arrested in Peru on an allegation of domestic violence, but the case was closed and he never faced trial, according to records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">U.S. officials sent Mr. Espinoza to El Salvador on March 30 on one of five planes carrying Venezuelan men to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/18\/world\/americas\/bukele-abrego-garcia-elsalvador-prison.html\" title=\"\">a maximum-security prison<\/a>. The Trump administration claims that all the Venezuelan men on those flights are members of Tren de Aragua, but it has provided little proof of this.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In late April, Ms. Bernal called her mother, Raida Inciarte,<span class=\"css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0\">  <\/span>to tell her that she was going to be deported back to Venezuela, Ms. Inciarte said in an interview. American officials had told Ms. Bernal that Antonella would be coming with her, Ms. Inciarte said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On the video call, Ms. Bernal showed her mother a document from immigration authorities bearing Antonella\u2019s name, which she claimed indicated the child would be leaving the United States with her.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But when Ms. Bernal boarded the deportation flight to Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, on April 25, her child was not there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">From her home in Maracaibo, Venezuela, Ms. Inciarte called on the American government to release the child, who she said has lived in four foster homes while her parents were in immigration detention over the past year. (Ms. Inciarte has been in touch with a case worker and the foster parents, she said.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Her daughter, she said, had arrived home in Maracaibo on Sunday, and spent Monday morning crying in her bedroom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThat little girl,\u201d she said of the toddler, \u201chas a family that has been suffering every day for a year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The toddler is under the supervision of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, according to the Department of Homeland Security, referring to a part of the Department of Health and Human Services. An official at that office referred all questions to the D.H.S.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Trump administration did not say when, or if, the child would be reunited with her family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In its statement, Homeland Security said Mr. Espinoza was a \u201clieutenant\u201d of Tren de Aragua who oversees criminal operations, including a \u201ctorture house,\u201d and that Ms. Bernal directed the \u201crecruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cPresident Trump and Secretary Noem take their responsibility to protect children seriously,\u201d said the statement, referring to the department\u2019s secretary, Kristi Noem. \u201cWe will not allow this child to be abused and continue to be exposed to criminal activity that endangers her safety.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mar\u00eda Alejandra Fern\u00e1ndez, 31, Mr. Espinoza\u2019s sister, said: \u201cMy brother is not a criminal. He left Venezuela like many young people, looking for an opportunity to get ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The department did not respond to a request for more details about the allegations of gang connections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Inciarte said the toddler\u2019s first foster homes were in the El Paso area. But Antonella was place in a new home in recent days, Ms. Inciarte said a foster mother told her, and now she wasn\u2019t sure where that home was located.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The new foster mother did not respond to messages from The New York Times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Trump administration has said that Tren de Aragua has \u201cinvaded\u201d the United States, which the president is using to justify the rapid deportations of hundreds of Venezuelans and to fulfill a campaign promise to take a hard line against undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Bernal and Mr. Espinoza fled economic and political crises at home in Venezuela, their families said, and met while living in Peru. She worked at a fast food stand. He worked as a bricklayer and in ironwork, until opening a business as a barber, said his sister, Ms. Fern\u00e1ndez, who lives in Venezuela.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Antonella was born in Lima on Feb. 8, 2023, according to her birth certificate, which lists the couple as her parents. When the girl was 1, Ms. Bernal and Mr. Espinoza decided to follow a growing flow of migrants to the United States, said their families.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Salaries in Peru were low, said Ms. Inciarte, and the situation wasn\u2019t improving in Venezuela.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey got excited,\u201d she said, \u201cand set out to pursue the American dream.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The couple left Peru, and \u2014 with their child in tow \u2014 crossed Ecuador, Colombia, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/09\/14\/world\/americas\/migrant-business-darien-gap.html\" title=\"\">the Dari\u00e9n jungle,<\/a> which connects South America with Panama and Central America. In Mexico, they were briefly kidnapped by what Mr. Espinoza\u2019s sister described as \u201ccoyotes,\u201d or migrant traffickers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last May, the families said, the two turned themselves in at the U.S. border.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-11\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">From detention, Ms. Bernal told her mother in a call that the authorities believed her tattoos \u2014 she has many \u2014 made her a \u201cgang member.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-12\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But it wasn\u2019t until Mr. Trump took office, said the families, that the accusations became more specific: The government believed that they were members of Tren de Aragua.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Bernal\u2019s tattoos include her parents\u2019 birth years inscribed on her neck, as well as a lightning bolt, a small flame and a serpent, her mother said. Mr. Espinoza\u2019s tattoos include the cartoon characters Yosemite Sam and Marvin the Martian, according to a statement he gave to the authorities, as well as a cross, a crown and a compass with a plane.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Internal government documents indicate that the U.S. authorities are citing <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/15\/world\/americas\/trump-migrants-deportations.html\" title=\"\">tattoos to label people<\/a> as members of Tren de Aragua, though there is little evidence that the gang uses tattoos as markers of membership.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In her conversations with the foster parents over the last year, Ms. Inciarte,<span class=\"css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0\">  <\/span>said the parents described Antonella as \u201csweet\u201d and \u201cindependent\u201d for a toddler. But they also noted that the girl cried when she moved among families and seemed confused about who she belonged to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This anguished the grandmother, who worried about \u201cpsychological damage,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cToday she wakes up with one mother,\u201d she said, \u201ctomorrow she has another.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Mitra Taj<!-- --> contributed reporting from Lima, Peru and <!-- -->Hamed Aleaziz<!-- --> contributed reporting from Washington. <!-- -->Sheelagh McNeill<!-- --> contributed research.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/29\/world\/americas\/family-deported-trump-venezuela-el-salvador.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Venezuelan family is calling for a 2-year-old to be returned to her mother after the U.S. authorities deported the mother to Venezuela on Friday without the child. The girl\u2019s father was sent to a prison in El Salvador in March. The toddler, Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal, remains in foster care in the United States, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/04\/27\/multimedia\/27int-venezuela-baby06-promo\/27int-venezuela-baby06-photo-qvlp-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[524,5500,40634,163575,28795,228181,7177,2222,90287,1004,183871,52,1021,163486,3346],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293399"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":293401,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293399\/revisions\/293401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}