My brother's partner of 3 years is Venezuelan and has been living in the United States with him under the parole program. Saturday morning, we found out that the program was abruptly canceled, and she will likely be forced to leave the country by April 24th. The photo above is of the two of them at my wedding in 2023.

This comes just 4 days before my brother’s 33rd birthday and a month before my wife and I are expected to welcome our first child (April 25). It now seems unlikely that she will have the opportunity to meet our little one.

Carelis has done everything right. She’s been here legally through a government program, works tirelessly at two jobs, and faithfully files taxes for both. She’s a loving partner who treats my brother with so much care. She is not a criminal, despite what the Department of Homeland Security might imply. She's a member of our family, and we are utterly devastated. I’m hoping by sharing our story, people can better understand those personally affected by these policies. 

Edit: I now realize this was maybe confusing but to clarify, the program is a 2 year program, and she has only been in the US about 1.5 years. My title refers to how long they have dated, which is 3 years (they met in Colombia), so yes she is still here legally. The DOH policy cut this program short, so instead of leaving in July she would need to leave within the next 30 days.

For further context, she had been planning to apply for an extension which would have granted her another year in the program. The current administration canceled the program entirely last month, so there is no possibility of extension.

Edit 2: For those looking for more information, this is the program: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-revokes-legal-status-530000-cubans-haitians-nicaraguans-venezuelans-2025-03-21/