SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – A Santa Maria man has been reunited with his five-year-old daughter who was held in an ICE detention facility for 20 hours with her mom.<\/p>\n
His wife remains in holding in Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n Milenko Faria moved to Santa Maria in 2017 after fleeing Venezuela, and his asylum case is pending after nearly a decade.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing is easy in Venezuela,\u201d says Milenko Faria, who lives in Santa Maria. \u201cSo, for example, to get a passport it takes months, years. And also, if your opinion is very high against the government, they cancel your passport.\u201d<\/p>\n He and his wife Dr. Rubeliz\u00a0Bolivar, another Venezuelan, had their 5-year-old daughter in Santa Maria, and she is a U.S. citizen.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was born in Santa Maria,\u201d says Faria. \u201cYeah. She was born in Marian hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n An attorney for\u00a0Dr. Bolivar says she has been lawfully in the u.s. under a work visa, and has her own\u00a0pending asylum case during her\u00a0residency in an underserved community in southern Texas.<\/p>\n \u201cShe has started, like, as a medical assistant, you know, and then she was I am an interpreter at the hospital,\u201d says Faria. \u201cShe was a Spanish interpreter.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Bolivar had their five year old daughter with her at a Texas airport, and they were about to board a flight back to Santa Maria.\u00a0<\/p>\n They were going to be present in support for Milenko\u2019s upcoming asylum hearing in Tustin.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the airport, she was question by the CBP,\u201d says Faria.<\/p>\n Dr. Bolivar tried to show she had a right to be in the US, but agents disagreed.<\/p>\n \u201cShe shows them the work permit,\u201d says Faria. \u201cWe have our work permit current until\u2014hers is until 2030. Mine is until 2029. And they are like, \u201coh, this is from Venezuela. These are like\u2014Venezuelan documents are not valid.\u201d Which is not true.\u201d<\/p>\n A relative traveled from Florida to Texas to bring the child back to Santa Maria.<\/p>\n \u201cMy daughter, she was detained for 19 hours because\u2014since four in the morning until, like, past 9:00 pm, she was detained,\u201d says Faria. \u201cShe was scared, you know. And that’s not good, that. She should be like just thinking, \u2018What am I going to play with?\u2019 You know?\u201d<\/p>\n Customs and Border Protection provided\u00a0your Newschannel with the following statement.<\/p>\n \u201cOn April 11, 2026, Rubeliz Bolivar was taken into custody at McAllen Airport. She has overstayed her visa since 2017, nearly a decade, and had no legal status. She chose to place her child in the care of a relative in the area.<\/p>\n CBP does not separate families or deport U.S. citizens. Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or if they would like CBP will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administration\u2019s immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n Parents, who are here illegally, can take control of their departure with the CBP Home App. The United States is offering aliens illegal aliens $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.\u201d<\/p>\n Milenko said that while he doesn’t want to say too much too soon, there does seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel. And his wife says she is not being mistreated in any way.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Latest Breaking News, Weather Alerts, Sports and More Anytime On Our Mobile Apps<\/a>. Keep Up With The Latest Articles by Signing Up for the News Channel 3-12 Newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – A Santa Maria man has been reunited with his five-year-old daughter who was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-250216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}