Utah man, daughter, stranded in Colombia, press for US visa so girl can go back home

SALT LAKE CITY — As a Utah man and his daughter sit and wait in Colombia, seeking a visa so the girl can return to the United States, they count the days and hope as they lobby for help and support.

"Every day she asks me, 'Daddy, when are we going to be able to leave? Daddy, when are we going to be able to leave?' It's not easy trying to explain to a 7-year-old the situation in a way she can understand," Leandro Bermudez said by phone from Riohacha, Colombia, home, for now, for him and his daughter, Lucia Bermudez Prado.

Indeed, while some developments offer hope, their future remains uncertain, subject to federal authorities and whether they think Lucia merits an exemption from restrictions outlined in two proclamations implemented by President Donald Trump governing immigration. Meantime, the girl, a second-grader at American Preparatory Academy in West Valley City, is missing class, and Bermudez's wife is bearing the brunt of running his restaurant in Taylorsville, Sentir Zuliano.

Bermudez, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Venezuela, traveled from Utah with his daughter to Bogota, Colombia, on March 10 to get the girl a visa as part of her efforts to secure formal U.S. residency. She is originally from Venezuela, same as her father, and had to travel outside the country from her home in Murray to complete the visa process.

To their surprise, officials at the U.S. Consulate in Bogota, the Colombian capital, denied the girl's visa request, citing the presidential proclamations, 10949 and 10998, which are chiefly designed to prevent U.S. entry to certain foreign nationals who pose a security threat. The development has left them in a state of limbo, and they've turned to lobbying for help in asking federal authorities for an exemption from the two proclamations. They're also pressing U.S. consular officials to reverse the decision to deny Lucia a visa, which they say was mistaken.

"We are still here, trying to find a way to get a national interest exemption because apparently that's the only way to make an exception to the presidential proclamation," Bermudez said. U.S. consular officials forwarded their request for an exemption to the U.S. State Department, "and they are waiting for the answer."

U.S. officials can't talk about specific cases due to privacy considerations. But in a statement, the State Department stressed the need to safeguard Americans in granting visas. The president has made border security and deportation of immigrations in the country illegally a priority.

"The Trump administration is upholding the highest standards of national security through the visa process, making clear that entry to the United States is a privilege — not a right — and that the safety of the American people comes first," reads the statement.

Glimmers of hope

As the situation unfolds, there are a few glimmers of hope for Bermudez and his daughter.

Daniel Black, their lawyer, said the girl has garnered around 25 letters of support from community members, which have been forwarded to federal officials as part of the girl's bid to get a exemption from Trump's presidential proclamations. U.S. Sen. John Curtis and U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens, Republicans serving Utah, have facilitated the process.

Utah Rep. Rosalba Dominguez, D-Murray, wrote one of the letters, supplied to KSL, saying Lucia would be a "valuable addition" to the United States and Murray. Bermudez said he's seeking more people willing to write letters to help his daughter.

Likewise, Black said U.S. officials are seeking more information about the girl, which he takes as a sign that they are reconsidering the decision to deny her a visa. "They absolutely should come back, and I fully expect them to be coming back and for this error to be corrected," he said.

Black maintains that Lucia, as a 7-year-old girl, shouldn't have been denied a visa in the first place. She isn't the sort of person targeted by Trump's two proclamations, for one thing. Moreover, as he interprets the wording of the proclamations, the girl ought to be able to get a visa because her father is a U.S. citizen.

Trump is incorrectly surmising that people from Venezuela and the other countries singled out in his proclamations are all coming to the United States "for the wrong reasons," Black said. "They should all be punished, and so that's their basis for denying a 7-year-old girl under a national security basis, saying she's a terrorist."

Read more:

Voces de Utah

Looking for more news from Utah's Latino community? Visit our Voces de Utah section for more stories, events and features.

For now, Bermudez and Lucia have moved to Riohacha on Colombia's Caribbean coast as friends and family in Utah spearhead efforts to help them. They're staying at the home of a Utah friend's mother to cut down on costs and grateful for the assistance.

But Bermudez wants to get back to Sentir Zuliano to help run the restaurant. At the same time, he worries his daughter may miss so much school that she has to repeat the second grade. "My daughter's despairing because she wants to go home, return to her school," he said.

The girl moved to the United States when she was 2, and Utah, where her closest family members live, is home, a sentiment Bermudez shares. Accordingly, the shock caused by the turn of events is particularly strong.

Bermudez felt compelled to leave Venezuela due to the socialist regime in the country, which has prompted many to flee the country, and now "the same thing is happening again in the country we thought was our new home," he said. "It's like feeling you don't belong anywhere."

Related topics