A Venezuelan man made his case before asylum officials Thursday in an interview in which his wife, a well-known doctor in South Texas, planned to attend so she could be detained at the airport with their 5-year-old daughter.
Milenko was a fugitive He was interviewed At USCIS offices near Los Angeles, While his wife, Dr. Robles Bolivar, entered her sixth day He was detained by immigration in Texas and was unable to do so Attending the appointment they have been waiting for for over 10 years.
Bolivar, who worked as a doctor in an area federally classified as medically underserved, was arrested by Border Patrol agents at McAllen International Airport on Saturday. She and their US-born daughter were preparing to board a plane to join her husband and attend their asylum interview together.
Bolivar, 33, was the second Venezuelan doctor to be arrested in the region within a week. On April 6, Dr. Ezequiel Velez was arrested by Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint in South Texas. After spending about ten days in detention, his lawyer, Victor Badel, said he was able to successfully request a bail hearing and secure his release on Thursday after posting $8,000 bail.
Arrests are part of President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration Policies. After increased law enforcement in Minnesota in JanuaryIn the case of the killing of American citizens, the Department of Homeland Security focused on less obvious arrests.
Bolivar worked in the emergency room of a hospital in McAllen, a city of about 150,000 in the Rio Grande Valley near the Mexican border, starting in June 2025, when she was accepted into its medical residency program.
“She was always focused on society, and when she was accepted, it was a tremendous joy,” Faria, 36, said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. “We never did anything outside the law. We did everything by following the steps according to the law to obtain permanent residency.”
The husband said she arrived in the United States on a tourist visa in 2016, after graduating from medical school in her native Venezuela.
He added that before the end of her authorized stay, she was included in her husband’s asylum application. Both are also seeking green cards through an application for skilled workers, which is being processed by Faria’s employer, a California company where he has worked as an information systems technician since 2019.
The couple were the beneficiaries of Temporary protected status for Venezuela Which protected more than 600,000 Venezuelans from deportation. Trump Protection ended For Venezuela, Haiti, Syria, Afghanistan, Nicaragua and other countries, a decision that was appealed in federal court.
The Department of Homeland Security said Bolivar was arrested because she was in the country illegally.
“She has overstayed her visa since 2017, almost a decade, and has no legal status,” said Lauren Pace, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security.
Judy Goodwin, an immigration attorney in South Texas, notes that around September or October 2025, she noticed a change in policy regarding the travel of individuals with pending applications before USCIS.
“It’s become a very clear trend where anyone who has some sort of pending application with USCIS, whether it’s adjustment of status or asylum, or anything like that, is getting arrested,” Goodwin said.
Faria and Bolivar lived together in Santa Maria, California, until she moved to Texas in the summer of 2025 for a medical residency. He said that he travels every two months to visit his wife and daughter. The day of her arrest was the first time Bolivar had traveled since moving to Texas.
Bolivar was arrested by Customs and Border Protection officers before passing a transportation security screening, where she was asked to show her identification. She showed her driver’s license — which carries the “Real ID” endorsement required for domestic flights — and a work permit valid until 2030.
Faria said she told them she was adjusting her status to get a green card and was traveling to California for an asylum interview, but the officer detained her after asking for her citizenship and demanding that she provide proof of legal permanent residency. He received text messages from his wife at the time of her arrest.
Their 5-year-old daughter, a US citizen, was also arrested and handed over to her grandfather 19 hours later. The girl is currently in California with her father.
The doctor was taken into ICE custody on Sunday and is being held at the El Valle Detention Center in Texas.
Faria said that she asked several times why she was arrested, but she has not received any response yet.
Ezequiel Velez, another Venezuelan doctor, came to the United States to become a doctor in 2018 on a tourist visa. His friend Hector Ruiz described him as a kind-hearted doctor who loved his pet cats and was dedicated to his work.
Velez adjusted his immigration status as a student and later as a physician at South Texas Hospital in the Rio Grande Valley operating under TPS. The temporary suspension in protected status had immediate consequences for his two-year stay.
His lawyer Baddiel said: “It has been a year and four months since this. He could not continue working legally. He had to stop.”
He was waiting to obtain a visa requested by the hospital when he was detained at a Border Patrol checkpoint while traveling to Houston with his husband on April 6.
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Associated Press writer Valerie Gonzalez contributed.