Pro-government supporters hold up signs with the image of Maikelys Espinoza, a 2-year-old in US custody whose parents were deported separately, at a rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
A screen shows an image of Maikelys Espinoza, a 2-year-old in US custody whose parents were deported separately, after a pro-government May Day rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
2-year-old girl separated from parents by US deportation arrives in Venezuela
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A 2-year-old girl separated from her parents by deportation arrived Wednesday in Venezuela where her mother was deported from the United States, a move that the South American country has repeatedly denounced as a kidnapping.
Pro-government supporters hold up signs with the image of Maikelys Espinoza, a 2-year-old in US custody whose parents were deported separately, at a rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A 2-year-old girl separated from her parents by deportation arrived Wednesday in Venezuela where her mother was deported from the United States, a move that the South American country has repeatedly denounced as a kidnapping.
arrived at an airport outside the capital, Caracas, along with more than 220 deported migrants. Footage aired by state television showed Venezuela’s first lady Cilia Flores carrying Maikelys at the airport. Later, Flores was shown handing the girl over to her mother, who had been waiting for her arrival at the presidential palace along with .
The U.S. government had claimed the family separation last month was justified because the girl’s parents allegedly have ties to the , which U.S. President Donald Trump designated a terrorist organization earlier this year.
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The girl’s mother was deported to Venezuela on April 25. Meanwhile, U.S. authorities sent her father to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in March under Trump’s invocation of to deport hundreds of immigrants.
For years, the government of Maduro had mostly refused the entry of immigrants deported from the U.S. But since Trump took office this year, hundreds of Venezuelan migrants, including some 180 who spent up to 16 days at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been deported to their home country.
The Trump administration has said the Venezuelans sent to Guantanamo and El Salvador are members of the Tren de Aragua, but has
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