The mother from Venezuela, Yorley Inciarte, was sent back to her home country last week without her 2-year-old daughter, and her partner was sent to El Salvador. She is now charging the U.S. government of “kidnapping” her child.
The father of the child told ABC News in Spanish, “My daughter was born in Venezuela, not in the United States.” “They are criminals, because they are kidnapping Venezuelans, a 2-year-old girl.”
Last week, Inciarte was sent back to Venezuela without her non-citizen daughter Maikelys Antonella Espinoza. She had been in jail for almost 10 months. Maiker Espinoza Escalona, her partner, was sent to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador on March 30 under Title 8, which allows migrants who are thought to be removable to be sent back to their home country.
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security say that Inciarte and Escalona are “Tren de Aragua parents,” which means they are part of the Venezuelan crime gang.
“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 last week in a statement. “The child’s mother, Yorely Escarleth Bernal Inciarte oversees recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution.”
The statement from DHS was put online in response to reports that the Trump administration also kidnapped the 2-year-old child from Venezuela by government officials.
“Everything is false,” Inciarte told ABC News in response to how DHS has been described. “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.”
Officials from DHS did not show any proof of the claims made against Inciarte and Escalona. When ABC News asked the agency for a response, they sent them a statement from last week that listed the accusations against the couple.
A look by ABC News through U.S. county and federal records showed that Escalona was not linked to any cases. ABC News found a federal criminal case against Inciarte from 2024 for illegal entry into the U.S. The documents show that Inciarte pleaded guilty and was given a sentence of time served and one working day.
Documents from Venezuela that their family gave them seem to show that they do not have any crime records in Venezuela.
The accused told ABC News, “I don’t want any mother to go through what I’m going through.”
Inciarte, Escalona, and their kid came to the U.S. last year looking for asylum. They turned themselves in to the police, who separated the three of them, Inciarte told ABC News.
Inciarte and Escalona were sent to different Texas prison centres, and their daughter was given to the government. Inciarte told ABC News that she could talk to her daughter on video calls and Escalona on the phone.
A look by ABC News through U.S. county and federal records showed that Escalona was not linked to any cases. ABC News found a federal criminal case against Inciarte from 2024 for illegal entry into the U.S. The documents show that Inciarte pleaded guilty and was given a sentence of time served and one working day.
Documents from Venezuela that their family gave them seem to show that they do not have any crime records in Venezuela.
The accused told ABC News, “I don’t want any mother to go through what I’m going through.”
Inciarte, Escalona, and their kid came to the U.S. last year looking for asylum. They turned themselves in to the police, who separated the three of them, Inciarte told ABC News.
Inciarte and Escalona were sent to different Texas prison centres, and their daughter was given to the government. Inciarte told ABC News that she could talk to her daughter on video calls and Escalona on the phone.
Inciarte said that since she got back to Venezuela, the government there, including President Nicolás Maduro, has been there for her.
“It wasn’t fair that her husband was sent to a concentration camp in El Salvador,” Maduro said with Inciarte on Thursday. “There he has no contact with lawyers, or a judge and he has committed no crime in that country.”
“Sooner rather than later, we are going to rescue our girl Maikelys Espinoza and the 253 kidnapped in El Salvador safe and sound,” Maduro said. He was referring to the claim that the Trump administration sent more than 200 accused Venezuelan gang members to CECOT under the Alien Enemies Act.
“When my partner and my daughter arrive here, the only thing I think about is staying here in my country, because the only one who supported me and fought alongside me was my country, no one else,” Inciarte said. “And I will never, ever leave my home country.” I’m not going to talk about the US at all; it will never come up. I don’t even want to talk about how bad things are in that country because what I went through there was so awful.