Maikelys Espinoza, a two-year-old child, was reunited with her mother in Caracas, Venezuela, on Wednesday, after the pair were separated when the Trump administration deported the parents alone.

Espinoza was one of 220 migrants on a flight from the US to Venezuela as the Donald Trump administration continues to carry out mass deportations.

What do we know about the reunion?

Video aired on Venezuelan state TV showed the child first in the arms of First Lady Cilia Flores — who greeted the plane at Caracas' Simon Bolivar International Airport.

The child's mother, Yorelys Bernel, waited at the Palacio de Miraflores presidential palace with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

"Here is everyone's beloved little girl. She is the daughter and granddaughter of all of us," said President Maduro when the child arrived at Miraflores.

On Wednesday, Maduro, who has had an antagonistic relationship with US leaders, thanked Trump for making the girl's return possible, calling it a "profoundly humane" act. Maduro also thanked Trump's special envoy Rick Grenell, who visited Maduro for talks shortly after Trump was sworn in.

"There have been and will [continue to] be differences," said Maduro, "but it is possible, with God's blessing, to move forward and resolve many issues."

"I hope and aspire," he added, "that very soon we can also rescue Maikely's father and the 253 Venezuelans who are in El Salvador."

Yorelys Bernel, the child's mother, was deported to Venezuela on April 25 after the child's father was reportedly sent off to CECOT maximum-security prison in El Salvador in March.

Did the White House offer evidence backing deportation?

The child's separation from her parents was decried in Venezuela, with angered citizens denouncing it as an "abduction." Still, she is just one of several to suffer a similar fate as the Trump administration continues its crusade against illegal immigration.

She was originally given to a foster care program after her parents turned themselves in to police in the US for having entered the US illegally in May 2024.

The Trump administration has claimed both parents are members of the transnational Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

The fact that the two have tattoos was submitted as grounds for deportation by the Trump administration.

However, White House officials offered no serious evidence to back its claim that Maikelys' father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona, was a Tren de Aragua "lieutenant" who presided over "homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion and sex trafficking."

No evidence was provided to prove that he "operates a torture house." The White House also did not provide evidence to substantiate claims that the mother oversaw the recruitment of young prostitutes and drug smugglers, as government prosecutors assert.

Trump designated Tren de Aragua a terrorist organization earlier this year and has used the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 as justification for carrying out mass deportations since returning to office.

The Trump administration has deported more than 4,000 migrants back to Venezuela alone since returning to office.

Caracas had previously refused to take in Venezuelans deported from the US, though it recently even agreed to take back nearly 200 individuals who had been sent to Guantanamo Bay and El Salvador.

Edited by: Louis Oelofse