ACTION ALERT: US Separates
Migrant Mother from her Baby
Medea Benjamin CODEPINK

(May 12, 2025) — While many of us spent Mother’s Day with our children and grandchildren, I want to share a message that broke my heart. It’s from a Venezuelan mother named Yorely, whose 2-year-old daughter was taken by the US government. Join me in taking action to get her released.

Yorely Bernal Inciarte and Maiker Espinoza Escalona with their two-year-old daughter Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal

She Is Just a Little Girl and I Am Her Mother
My name is Yorely, and I am the mother of Maikelys Antonella, a 2-year-old Venezuelan girl who was ripped from my arms by the US government.

While other mothers spent yesterday hugging their children, I spent it crying for mine.

Please, I am begging you, tell the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to give me back my daughter.

We went to the US seeking opportunity after years of economic hardships, but instead of a chance to build a better life, we were torn apart. I was deported to Venezuela. My husband was sent to a prison in El Salvador. And my one year-old baby – my sweet Maikelys – was left behind. Alone. In US foster care.

Since they took her in 2024, the ORR has moved her between three foster homes, including one where there were allegations of sexual abuse.

I cry every day knowing she is somewhere out there without me, wondering where I went. I want her to know I would never, ever abandon her. One day when we are reunited, she will wonder why the US government would take a baby girl away from her parents.

As a mother, I cannot take a sip of water without thinking, “Is my baby thirsty?” I can’t sleep without asking myself, “Is she warm? Is she safe? Is she scared?”

There was no court hearing. No charges. No trial. No chance to defend ourselves. They simply tore us apart without explanation.

And now, my daughter is treated like she has no family. Me and my husband can’t even navigate this hardship together, because it wasn’t enough for them to take our baby. They had to separate us from each other too.

Please, help me reach the people who are keeping my daughter. Tell ORR that Maikelys is not an orphan. She has a mother. She has a home. She has me, waiting for her in Venezuela. 

What no one tells you is that once the ORR takes your child and you’re no longer there, it’s as if you never existed. The ORR doesn’t have a plan to bring her back to me, only to manage her, to “place” her. It’s like they’ve already decided she no longer belongs with us.

But she does. She belongs with her family. She belongs with me.

It’s not a glitch in the system. It’s a reflection of a system that pushes families to leave their homeland and then punishes them for trying to survive.

Please, from one mother to another, from one human to another: help me bring my daughter home. Tell the ORR to reunite Maikelys with her family. Share her story. Speak her name. Don’t let the US government hide what they’ve done to us behind a wall of deception.

Please, if you’ve ever loved a child, if you’ve ever felt the instinct to protect someone with your whole being, stand with me now.
Help me bring my baby home.
Con todo mi corazón,
Yorely Bernal Inciarte

Free Maikelys – Reunite Her With Her Parents
ACTION: Sign the online petition.
To: Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)

We demand the immediate release of Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal, a 2-year-old child currently held in US government custody, and her reunification with her family.

Maikelys was taken from her parents, Yorely Bernal Inciarte and Maiker Espinoza Escalona, shortly after they presented themselves at the US border in May 2024 seeking asylum, a right protected under US and international law. Her parents were detained, separated, and ultimately deported to different countries: her mother Yorely to Venezuela and her father Maiker is now detained at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador.

Their daughter remains in US foster care alone, disoriented, and far from her family. Yorely is desperately trying to get her young daughter back to Venezuela.

There is no evidence that either parent committed a crime in the United States, or in Venezuela and Peru, where they lived before seeking asylum in the US Despite baseless claims by DHS suggesting gang affiliation and alleged involvement in trafficking, neither parent has a criminal record. These accusations appear to be rooted in nothing more than discriminatory profiling, specifically, their tattoos.

Their daughter has spent the last year shuffled through three different foster homes, including one that was changed due to allegations of sexual abuse. The mission of the Office of Refugee Resettlement is to protect children, not hold them captive.

Keeping a toddler from her family based on unsubstantiated claims is not “safety.” It is state violence. It is family separation. It is trauma inflicted on a child who should never have been taken from her parents in the first place.

We call on ORR to immediately release Maikelys from foster custody and initiate a process for her safe reunification with her mother and grandmother in Venezuela. We are in contact with the family in Venezuela and volunteers are ready to help facilitate a safe and timely reunification process.

It is preposterous that tearing a baby from her mother’s arms is justified in the name of border security!
Reunite Maikelys with her parents now!