(WASHINGTON) — After being in a detention center for several months in Texas, Yorely Bernal Inciarte got the news she had been praying for: She was going to be deported back to her home country.

But when she boarded her deportation flight to Venezuela last week, her worst nightmare came true, she said: Her two-year old daughter was not on the flight.

“I started yelling at the officers asking where my baby was,” Inciarte told ABC News. “[Immigration and Customs Enforcement] officers ignored me.”

When Inciarte, her partner Maiker Espinoza Escalona and their child entered the U.S. last year and surrendered to authorities, the three were separated, Inciarte told ABC News.

Inciarte and Escalona were placed in separate detention centers in Texas and their daughter was placed in government custody, Inciarte said. She told ABC News she was able to speak with her daughter on video calls and with Escalona over the phone.

The two adults were placed in asylum proceedings but they eventually asked for a deportation order to be reunited with their child, who is not a U.S. citizen, one of their attorneys told ABC News.

But that would never happen. Escalona was transferred to Guantanamo Bay and then sent to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador on March 30 under Title 8 authorities, according to the family and their attorney.

“When I saw him in a video in El Salvador, I was in shock,” Inciarte said. “I couldn’t stop crying and yelling.”

Last week, Inciarte was deported to Venezuela without her daughter, a move that has outraged government officials in Venezuela. The Department of Homeland Security over the weekend labeled Inciarte and Escalona as “Tren de Aragua parents,” alleging the two are members of the Venezuelan gang.

“The child’s father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona is a lieutenant of Tren De Aragua who oversees homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, sex trafficking and operates a torture house,” DHS said in a statement over the weekend. “The child’s mother, Yorely Escarleth Bernal Inciarte oversees recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution.”

“The child remains in the care and custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement and is currently placed with a foster family,” DHS added.

Inciarte, her attorney and the family deny the accusations by DHS.

“If it’s true, release the evidence,” Inciarte told ABC News. “Release the proof that we are Tren de Aragua. They took a child away from their mother and they’re telling lies about us.”

According to Inciarte, she and Escalona were never released from detention in the U.S. A DHS document obtained by ABC News shows that Inciarte entered the U.S. on May 14 and did not present a valid entry document.

Venezuelan documents provided by their family appear to show the two do not have criminal records in their home country.

When asked about the evidence the agency has on Escalona and Inciarte, DHS sent ABC News the statement posted over the weekend.

An ABC News review of county and federal records found no cases associated with Escalona. ABC News located a federal criminal case against Inciarte for improper entry into the U.S. in 2024. According to the documents, Inciarte pleaded guilty and was sentenced to time served and one business day.

Over the weekend, a top official in the Venezuelan government accused the U.S. of “kidnapping” the child.

“The U.S. government is robbing Venezuelan children,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on a radio show.

Inciarte’s family previously told ABC News they believe the couple was accused of being members of Tren de Aragua because of their tattoos.

“My daughter has a tattoo of the year I was born and the year her dad was born,” Inciarte’s mother told ABC News. “She also has the name of her son and some flowers on her chest. Maiker is a tattoo artist and he would do her tattoos.”

Marly, who is Escalona’s sister, said her brother was also a barber and traveled to the U.S. for a better life.

“My brother is a 25-year-old guy, a dreamer, like all Venezuelans,” Marly said in Spanish. “He loves cutting hair. He finished high school, he took courses in barbering and set up his barbershop in Venezuela. But things got a bit tough in Venezuela, so he emigrated to have a better life.”

The Office of Refugee Resettlement under the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency that has custody of the 2-year old, referred ABC News to DHS for questions about the child.

Inciarte told ABC News she does not know who to contact and what to do to get her daughter back.

“I wouldn’t wish this on any mother,” Inciarte said.

ABC News’ Jared Kofsky contributed to this report.

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