CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — María Alejandra Rubio hasn’t seen her son in five months. They were separated in the United States when she was detained to be deported to her native Venezuela and he was sent to live with a family friend.

Rubio says U.S. immigration authorities led her to believe she would board a plane to Venezuela with her 8-year-old son, Anyerson. But she made the hourslong journey last month without him.

Heartbroken, Rubio is now part of a group of Venezuelan mothers and grandmothers appealing to U.S. first lady Melania Trump to help them see their children and grandchildren again. Members of the group, backed by Venezuela’s government, say they sent Trump a letter seeking her assistance last month.

“He tells me, ‘Mom, I want to be with you. I want to return to my country

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