Utah man, 7-year-old daughter stuck in Colombia after U.S. officials deny her visa request

MURRAY — What was supposed to be a short trip to Colombia by Leandro Bermudez and his daughter Lucia to help the young girl secure U.S. residency has turned into a nightmare.

U.S. officials say the 7-year-old can't return to her home in Utah based on a proclamation issued by President Donald Trump last year that's meant to prevent entry of terrorists and "public safety threats," according to the lawyer of the girl and her dad.

"Oh my gosh. We're trying to do everything we can so she can come back. ... We're heartbroken right now, " said Leanys Bermudez, the brother of Leandro Bermudez and Lucia's aunt.

Leandro Bermudez, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Venezuela now living in Murray, like his sister, traveled with his daughter to Colombia on March 10 as part of his application to U.S. immigration officials to help the girl get a permanent resident card. She was required to travel outside the United States to complete the process and since Venezuela and the United States don't have formal relations, they went to the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, the Colombian capital, where Venezuelans are processed.

But what they hoped would be a routine interview with embassy officials to process their I-130 application and get a visa has instead turned into rejection, uncertainty and a campaign for help from Utah's congressional delegation to Washington, D.C. Bermudez and Lucia, whose application request was denied on March 16 by U.S. officials in Colombia, remain in limbo in Bogota as family and friends in Utah search for a solution.

"They should have been gone 10 days max," said Ogden attorney Daniel Black, who's representing Leandro Bermudez and Lucia. "But they got down there, and at the interview, they denied (Lucia), citing a June 2025 executive order which says that people who are terrorists and who ... are likely to be a security risk to the United States are (to be) denied visas."

The executive order is part of Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. Black, however, says officials at the U.S. Embassy incorrectly interpreted the order and that Lucia, as the daughter of a U.S. citizen, should be exempted from its provisions. He wrote a testy email to U.S. officials after receiving the news, also stressing that the girl, a second-grader at American Preparatory Academy in West Valley City, isn't a U.S. security risk, the ostensible target of the order.

"The applicant is 7-years-old! No rational human can justify denying a 7-year-old girl the opportunity to be with her family in the U.S. under any policy designed to stop terrorists or 'hateful ideology' or 'malevolent purposes,'" he wrote in the March 17 message, citing language from the order. "To do so is inhumane and disgraceful. She has no ties to Colombia, no family or anyone to care for her in Colombia, and she is now trapped there until you correct your erroneous decision and allow her to travel with her U.S. citizen father back to the U.S., where her mother and other family are awaiting her."

The message from U.S. officials to Lucia and her dad, couched in bureaucratic language, cites the June 2025 proclamation. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services media representatives don't have access to case-specific information to provide a comment.

Like her brother, Leanys Bermudez is a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Murray. Both are small business operators. Among other things, she said she's reached out to the office of U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, for help. She's hoping he can press for some sort of exception allowing the girl to return to Utah. His office didn't immediately respond to a query seeking comment.

Lucia crossed into the United States in 2021 at the age of 2 with her mother — her dad was already here — and Utah, the girl's aunt says, is home. Her parents are no longer together, but they both live in Utah, share joint custody of the girl and have an amicable relationship.

Black said Lucia's 2021 entry into the United States from Mexico is regarded as unlawful in the eyes of the government, though she had sought asylum during the crossing. Thus, she had to return to Venezuela as part of her father's efforts to help her secure U.S. residency, setting the stage for the denial from U.S. Embassy officials. The lawyer said he had reviewed all the pertinent laws and executive orders before they traveled to Colombia, though, and to him, "it was clear" the girl would qualify for a visa.

Leanys Bermudez stresses the girl's strong Utah ties and disconnect with Venezuela, even though she was born there.

"She's been here for five years. She's only 7. She doesn't speak really good Spanish. She doesn't write Spanish," she said. Her grandparents from her mother's side are in Venezuela, "but she doesn't know them."

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Leandro Bermudez posted a video online from Bogota, holding his daughter and pleading for help. He hopes it goes viral, generating public pressure for help in his case.

"I ask for your collaboration and help to make this video go viral so we reach the pertinent authorities so they make an exception, a waiver, for Lucia, and they say she doesn't represent a risk to national security. She's a 7-year-old girl who's lived in the United States since she was 2," he said.

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