Her 5-year-old daughter, Milena, who is a U.S. citizen, was released and united with her father, Milenko Faria Virla, in Santa Maria on Monday.<\/p>\n
The Venezuelan-born mother had moved with Milena to Texas about a year ago to complete her medical residency at South Texas Health System GME Consortium\u2019s Emergency Medicine Residency Program.<\/a><\/p>\n Bolivar Barrios and Milena were detained while attempting to board a flight from McAllen International Airport<\/a> to the Santa Barbara Airport<\/a>. They were heading to California to reunite with Faria Virla before his asylum interview on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bolivar Barrios and Milena never made it onto their flight.<\/p>\n The pair were stopped, questioned and then detained at the Texas airport by U.S. Customs and Border Protection<\/a> agents, Faria Virla said.<\/p>\n U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to Noozhawk\u2019s request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n A spokesperson said in a statement given to KEYT<\/a> that Bolivar Barrios had overstayed her visa since 2017. The statement also said parents are asked if they want to be removed from the country with their children or if they want their children placed with another designated person.<\/p>\n Faria Virla and Bolivar Barrios left Venezuela in 2015 and 2016, respectively. They moved to Santa Maria in 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n Faria Virla has a pending asylum case, and the couple have work permits to work in the country, he said. Their daughter was born in the United States.<\/p>\n They are also in the process of trying to obtain green card visas \u2014 known as an EB-3 visa \u2014 through Faria Virla\u2019s job at a Santa Maria medical device manufacturer.<\/p>\n Their lawyer confirmed to Noozhawk that Bolivar Barrios has a pending asylum petition as her husband\u2019s dependent and a pending employment-based adjustment of status petition.<\/p>\n Faria Virla said he learned about the detainment through text messages while his wife was trying to prove her and her daughter\u2019s legal status to the agents.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was terrified because of all the stories I have seen online and on the news,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what I was going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n She provided Milena\u2019s birth certificate to the agents after they reportedly did not believe she was a U.S. citizen, Faria Virla relayed. <\/p>\n \u201cThat is when the agents start to treat her better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \t\tVenezuelan-born doctor and former Santa Maria resident Rubeliz Bolivar Barrios was detained before her flight to Santa Barbara last Saturday. Credit: South Texas Health System photo<\/p>\n Faria Virla said Bolivar Barrios also showed the agents her work permit, which doesn\u2019t expire until 2030, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe agent said all Venezuelan documents are invalid,\u201d Faria Virla said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The couple\u2019s lawyer, Tanya Ahlman, said Bolivar Barrios had Temporary Protected Status<\/a> until November 2025, when the Trump administration removed Venezuela\u2019s TPS<\/a> designation<\/a>.<\/p>\n That designation allows eligible citizens from other countries to live and work in the United States because of a country\u2019s ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions,<\/a> according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ahlman, a partner at Santa Barbara practice Kingston, Martinez & Hogan LLP, said President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> administration has removed TPS protections for most countries, \u201cseveral of which have ongoing litigation challenging the termination.\u201d<\/p>\n Ahlman said that when an asylum application is in \u201cvalid status,\u201d the applicant is permitted to remain in the country until U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services decides regarding the application.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite following the correct processes and procedures, she was detained attempting to fly to see her husband for his asylum interview,\u201d she said in an email to Noozhawk.<\/p>\n Faria Virla said Milena left the detention center 19 hours later under the supervision of her grandfather, Faria Virla\u2019s father. He said she was traumatized, thinking her mom was imprisoned.\u00a0<\/p>\n Faria Virla\u2019s father flew with Milena to Santa Barbara with the help of a nonprofit organization, Each Step Home<\/a>.<\/p>\n As they approached U.S. Customs and Border Protection before their flight, she was scared she would be detained again, according to Faria Virla.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was squeezing my dad\u2019s hand so hard,\u201d Faria Virla said.<\/p>\n Faria Virla said his wife\u2019s work colleagues and community have been critical in helping him figure out what to do by giving him names of organizations and people to contact.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is when I finally felt like I wasn\u2019t alone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Pauline Wiltz, president of the Emergency Medicine Residents\u2019 Association<\/a>, also wrote a letter in support of Bolivar Barrios to Texas Sens. John Cornyn<\/a> and Ted Cruz<\/a> and Texas Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz<\/a>.<\/p>\n Wiltz said Bolivar Barrios is \u201cone of these dedicated professionals\u201d and confirmed that she is lawfully in the country. <\/p>\n \u201cHer work as a resident physician places her at the heart of our health care system, where she serves vulnerable populations in the Rio Grande Valley and responds to urgent medical crises with skill and compassion,\u201d she said in the letter.\u00a0<\/p>\n She added: \u201cHer continued detention, despite her lawful status, raises serious questions and warrants prompt review. Her detainment interrupts not only her training but also the essential care she provides.\u201d<\/p>\n Faria Virla completed his asylum interview on Thursday by himself after explaining his family\u2019s situation.\u00a0He does not yet know about the outcome of that interview.<\/p>\n Their Santa Barbara lawyer is working to secure Bolivar Barrios\u2019 release through congressional representatives. The lawyer is also preparing a motion for bond.<\/p>\n For now, Faria Virla and Milena wait for his wife\u2019s daily calls from the detention facility. Saturday will mark a week since his family was first detained.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard. The waits are difficult,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I have confidence that she will soon be released.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Santa Maria man is fighting to get his wife, Dr. Rubeliz Bolivar Barrios, released from a Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[251,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-256946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-local-news","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256946","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=256946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Venezuelan-born](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/041726-Venzuelen-Doctor-Detained-Courtesy.png\")
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