Border Patrol detained physician Dr. Rubeliz Bolivar and her US-citizen daughter at McAllen airport

On the morning of April 11, 2026, U.S. Border Patrol agents detained Dr. Rubeliz "Bibi" Bolivar, a 33-year-old Venezuelan-born emergency-room physician, and her 5-year-old U.S.-citizen daughter at McAllen International Airport as they prepared to fly to California for a previously scheduled asylum interview with her husband, Milenko Faria. Bolivar had worked in the emergency room of a South Texas Health System hospital in McAllen since starting her medical residency in June 2025, serving a region designated as medically underserved. She was the second Venezuelan-born physician detained by immigration authorities in South Texas within a week, after Dr. Ezequiel Veliz was detained at a Rio Grande Valley checkpoint on April 6.

On April 12, Border Patrol transferred Bolivar to ICE custody pending completion of her immigration proceedings. ICE said Bolivar had entered the U.S. on a visitor visa in October 2016 and "failed to leave the country when the visa expired in 2017, living in the U.S. illegally for over nine years." Faria and medical advocacy groups, including the American College of Emergency Physicians and the Emergency Medicine Residents' Association, said Bolivar held a valid work-authorization card, issued through her and Faria's pending asylum claim, that remained valid until 2030; immigration attorneys interviewed by local media noted that a work-authorization card or pending asylum claim does not itself confer legal status. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, said ICE's targeting of physicians like Bolivar and Veliz was "destroying lives" and worsening care access in an already underserved region.

Updates

2026-04-11 — Bolivar's daughter released to a relative the same day [1]

Bolivar's 5-year-old U.S.-citizen daughter, who had been detained alongside her at the airport, was released to a relative later the same day, April 11, 2026.

2026-04-16 — Husband attended the couple's asylum interview alone as Bolivar remained in custody [1]

On April 16, 2026 — Bolivar's sixth day in immigration custody — Faria attended the couple's long-scheduled asylum interview at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices near Los Angeles without her. Faria told the Associated Press the couple had "never done anything outside the law" and had been waiting more than ten years for the interview; he said Bolivar's continued detention left her asylum claim "in limbo."

2026-05-13 — Bolivar released from ICE custody on bond [2][4]

Bolivar was released from ICE custody on bond on May 13, 2026, after more than a month in detention at the El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville, wearing an ankle monitor and subject to mandatory ICE check-ins. Her release followed advocacy from the American College of Emergency Physicians and the Emergency Medicine Residents' Association, and she was reunited with her family as her asylum claim and green-card application remained pending.