FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 14, 2025

Media Contact: Melissa Garriga | [email protected] 

CODEPINK Statement: Maikelys Is Back.

Now Let’s Make Sure It Never Happens Again

Maikelys is back.

After more than a year of forced separation, two-year-old Maikelys Antonella has finally been reunited with her mother and grandmother in Venezuela. This homecoming is a hard-won victory, thanks to her family's tireless fight and relentless advocacy, but it never should have been necessary in the first place.

Maikelys was taken from her family by the U.S. government. Her mother was deported to Venezuela. Without any conviction, her father was thrown into a prison in El Salvador, a country he had no ties to. And Maikelys was left behind. Alone. In U.S. foster care.

This didn’t start at the border. It started with U.S. economic warfare. For years, the United States has imposed brutal sanctions on Venezuela, collapsing its economy, destroying hospitals, and fueling widespread hunger. Millions have been forced to flee, not by choice, but by survival. Then, in an act of staggering cruelty, those fleeing are being punished for seeking refuge.

Maikelys is just one of countless children swallowed by a system built to scapegoat, criminalize, and disappear the very people it forces to flee.

We celebrate her return, but our work doesn’t end with reunification. We demand justice.

Abolish ICE.
End the deadly sanctions.
Fund schools, not cages.
Build communities, not walls.

We need a foreign policy rooted in respect and a domestic policy rooted in care. That means ending the violent policies like sanctions and interventions that displace families abroad, and building systems that protect and welcome them here.

We won’t stop until every child is safe, every family is whole, and every policy reflects compassion, dignity, and justice.

###