Lawyers for 18-year-old Branyerly, who made the journey to the U.S. border at the age of 17, told Newsweek on Tuesday that the teenager has been denied entry to the U.S. at least two times and forced to remain in a notoriously dangerous border town alone since she was “separated from her dad” at the U.S. border.
“It is completely unacceptable and unfair that Branyerly’s father was released into the United States, but his 18-year-old daughter was sent alone to the streets of Matamoros with a fake future hearing date and no hope of seeing her parents again,” said lawyer Jodi Goodwin in a statement shared with Newsweek.
Her father, a Venezuelan political activist, had been granted “Withholding of Removal” just over two weeks ago, allowing him to temporarily stay in the U.S., where his wife and other child had been waiting to be reunited with him and Branyerly.
He had already made it to the U.S. previously. However, he returned to Venezuela to help Branyerly get across the U.S. border after he allegedly received threats that involved his daughter’s safety, his lawyers said.
“The father’s case is so compelling, the Immigration Judge granted a special type of protection finding it was clearly likely he would be tortured if returned to Venezuela,” a press release sent out on the family’s behalf states.
Since new rules launched by President Donald Trump in July, “requesting asylum is no longer a legal option for many, like this Venezuelan family,” the press release states. “These families must now meet a higher standard of proof to enter, where each family member’s case is weighed individually.”
As a result, lawyers say, more families are being separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, with children being ordered deported “by the same immigration judges who have determined that their parents will be persecuted if forced to return to their home countries.”
While Trump did bring his short-lived “zero tolerance” family separation rule to an end, lawyers have alleged that rules like the president’s “Asylum Transit Ban” ultimately have the same result.
In the case of Branyerly, whose last name has been withheld over fears of persecution, the 18-year-old was just not as politically active or visible as her father, which, lawyers say, is a point the judge used to deny her the same protections granted to him.
Instead of being able to stay in the U.S. with him, she was forced to return to Matamoros, Mexico, a border town with a level 4 “do not travel” advisory from the U.S. State Department due to high rates of crime and violence, and in particular, kidnapping and extortion. Under the Trump administration’s widely condemned “Remain in Mexico” policy, she will be forced to wait there.
Now, Goodwin said, “the family hopes for reunification and protection for their daughter from the regime of [Nicolás] Maduro, who President Trump called ‘an illegitimate ruler, a tyrant who brutalizes his people.’”
Goodwin questioned how President Donald Trump could be “offering promises of support for the Venezuelan opposition leader in his State of the Union address,” while allowing Venezuelan families seeking refuge in the U.S. to be separated at the border.
“While President Trump was offering promises of support for the Venezuelan opposition leader in his State of the Union address, I received a call from a terrified Venezuelan activist fighting for his daughter’s safety,” she said.
Newsweek has contacted the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency for comment.
