Maritsa here.
This morning, I learned of a Venezuelan woman sitting in a Minnesota detention facility who no longer believes her three young sons are alive. She has stopped eating. She won’t leave her bed. When her attorney last visited her, they said she was wheeled in with shackles on her wrists, waist, and ankles. Her name is Sorelys Coromoto Rodriguez Olivar. People close to her say she did everything the “right way,” and it still wasn’t enough. Her sons are very much alive and safe. And she needs our help.
It’s been six months since my reporting trip to my hometown of Minneapolis to cover the anguish, grief, and anger felt collectively over the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of DHS officers. I spoke with so many incredible Minnesotans that week who spent nearly all of their free time helping others. For some that meant filling bags with frozen corn in a church basement to be distributed to families in need. For others, it meant literally hiding people in their homes. While the national media has mostly moved on from these stories, my friends and contacts in the Twin Cities say the horrors of Operation Metro Surge are still felt daily. And community members are still helping every single day.
A woman I grew up with, Caroline, was recently connected to a family that needed Spanish translation help to access mutual aid. She met with three young boys and quickly realized they were going to need a lot more than an occasional grocery run. While the boys are safe and cared for, they need their mom.
Court documents show Sorelys Coromoto Rodriguez Olivar came to the United States from Venezuela in March 2024, presenting at the border and applying for asylum for herself and her three young sons. They were granted humanitarian parole. She secured contract work with a tree company and was eventually transferred to Minnesota.
In December, ICE agents showed up at her job site and arrested her and other coworkers.
Caroline says a co-worker took custody of Sorelys’ children, assuming this would be quickly resolved and Sorelys would be released within a few days. She wasn’t the target of the operation. She was in the United States legally, had work authorization, no criminal record, and no valid reason to be arrested.
That was more than seven months ago. Sorelys is still detained.
Caroline says she’s been transferred, “lost” in the system, placed in removal proceedings, and more. She’s begged to be allowed to self-deport, to return to Venezuela with her boys.
“Her mental health has declined so much over these [seven] months that she has now convinced herself that her sons are no longer alive and is refusing to eat, leave her bed, or speak with anyone,” Caroline wrote in a lengthy post about the situation. “The last appointment she had with her attorney, she had to be brought out in a wheelchair, shackled and handcuffed on her legs, waist, and wrists, and appeared extremely thin and delusional.”
People connected to the family are trying once more today to get her released to a local hospital, but they don’t have high hopes.
“If they still don’t release her after this, I truly don’t know what other options we have,” Caroline wrote. “The crazy thing is this is a common situation. This same scenario has been happening over and over to detainees ever since Operation Metro Surge. Sorelys’ case is especially sad because of the three boys left with no family, but all of these cases involve unnecessary heartbreak and wasted resources.”
It’s my hope we can amplify this story in the same way we amplified the stories of Liam Ramos and Kilmar Abrego Garcia to provide help. I know that for every Liam, Kilmar, and Sorelys, there are thousands of others whose names we don’t know and whose faces aren’t ingrained in our memory. These are the people Renee Good and Alex Pretti were standing up for. These are the stories we cannot look away from.
UPDATE:
What can you do?
Share so this story gets attention far and wide
Submit a complaint via the DHS Civil Rights Complaint Portal
Contact lawmakers in Minnesota (links below):
If you know any lawyers willing to help, share with them
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