{"id":216726,"date":"2026-04-02T23:01:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T23:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/216726\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T23:01:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T23:01:17","slug":"unable-to-self-deport-to-venezuela-families-get-trapped-in-nightmarish-limbo-in-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/216726\/","title":{"rendered":"Unable to self-deport to Venezuela, families get trapped in nightmarish limbo in Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MIAMI \u2014 Two mothers eager for a family reunion sat with their toddlers on Thursday in Miami to talk about their nightmare in hopes of finding a solution. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Their husbands were deported to Venezuela. They couldn\u2019t afford to stay in the U.S. without them, so they opted to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.gov\/cbphome\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.gov\/cbphome\"> self-deport<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Once at Miami International Airport, the airlines did not allow them to board their flights to Venezuela. Without travel documents, they needed a safety pass. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cOh my God! I almost wanted to die,\u201d Yelitza P\u00e9rez, the 29-year-old mother of two girls, said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The mothers and their children, including babies, were part of a group of Venezuelan migrants who spent a few nights sleeping at MIA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The only way the airlines would allow them to fly to Venezuela was if they were able to get a pass or \u201csalvoconducto\u201d from a Venezuelan consulate or embassy, but those were closed in 2019. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI sat with my children to cry,\u201d a mother, who asked to be referred to as Jennifer, said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Jennifer said she reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to explain her dilemma, and a representative said they couldn\u2019t help her. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThey couldn\u2019t help me without a passport,\u201d Jennifer said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Jennifer reached out to a stranger on TikTok, who promised to help her in exchange for cash. The opportunistic fraudster stole her $520. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Miami-based nonprofit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hermanosdelacalleusa\/?locale=es_LA\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hermanosdelacalleusa\/?locale=es_LA\">Hermanos De La Calle<\/a> helped the vulnerable Venezuelans to get a place to stay and food while they remained stuck in a hopeless limbo. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Homeland Security has yet to respond to a request for information about the cases. A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar said she and her team were trying to find solutions. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Two mothers eager for a family reunion sat with their toddlers on Thursday in Miami to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-216726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}