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Agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol detained Venezuelan doctor Rubeliz Bolívar and her five-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen, last Saturday at McAllen International Airport in Texas while they were trying to board a flight to California for an immigration appointment related to the doctor's pending asylum case.
According to the family as reported to Telemundo 51, when Bolívar showed her documents to the agents and explained the reason for her trip, the officials responded that she was Venezuelan and that it "didn't matter."
Mother and daughter were taken to a detention center in McAllen. After approximately 16 hours, the girl was released and handed over to her grandparents. Bolívar was subsequently transferred to the ICE Valley Detention Center.
Her husband, Milenko Faría, who was looking forward to the family reunion in California, described his daughter's experience as devastating. "A five-year-old girl shouldn't be going through this. She should be thinking about having fun, playing, and being happy as she always has been," he stated this Monday to Noticias Telemundo.
Faría also spoke about the condition of his wife: "Yesterday she called me to say that she was transferred to the ICE Detention Center in the Valley. She told me that she is being treated well. She has remained strong. She is a strong woman and she is resilient. But yes, I can hear in her voice, behind that, that she is not well."
Bolívar has been in the United States for nearly ten years and was working as an emergency physician in the healthcare system of South Texas, an area officially designated by the federal government as having a shortage of healthcare professionals. The family claims she had a valid work permit until 2030 and a pending residency application through the immigration process related to her husband’s employment.
A lawyer not involved in the case noted that the agents "are following the new rules of the game," stating that they will not issue any visas even if she attends her asylum interview.
The arrest of Bolívar is the second of its kind in less than a week in South Texas. On April 6, Venezuelan doctor Ezequiel Véliz was arrested at a border checkpoint in Kenedy County while traveling to Houston with his husband, a U.S. citizen. Véliz was working at UT Health Rio Grande Valley and had a visa application pending from his employer, but his immigration status had expired during the waiting period.
Bolívar's sister summarized the impact of the detention: "It's like uncertainty. You never know when it could happen to you, and it's something that worries a lot and destroys a family, destroys dreams, destroys work that has been so difficult."
According to the director of the organization Médicos Unidos Venezuela, there are over 2,000 Venezuelan doctors in the United States, and 90% of them have pending immigration status, which exposes them to situations similar to those in the context of the immigration policy of the Trump administration, reported El País.
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