McALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A second Venezuelan doctor in the Rio Grande Valley has been detained by federal immigration agents. According to Dr. Jesús Guarecuco, the director of Médicos Unidos Venezuela, Dr. Rubeliz Bolívar was at the McAllen International Airport on Saturday morning for a flight to California. She was traveling with her 5-year-old, who is a U.S. citizen. Both were detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. Guarecuco said Dr. Bolívar was going to California to meet her husband for an appointment in their asylum case. In addition to that active asylum case and a pending green card from her marriage, he said that Dr. Bolívar holds a valid work permit through 2030. “There was no explanation,” Guarecuco said. “It feels like it’s at the discretion of whatever official is there to take you or not.” Dr. Guarecuco’s organization represents Venezuelan physicians in the United States, many of whom are located in Florida and Texas. He says many of them are now scared to travel. “We can’t even go to a conference, go to a course, things that we usually do in our job, our profession, to improve our skills,” Guarecuco said. “People have the fear of travel, the fear of moving out of their community, because they also are in a legal limbo, that they’re going to be detained or put in custody.” A CBP spokesperson confirmed Bolívar was taken into custody at the McAllen airport. In a statement, they said she “has overstayed her visa since 2017, nearly a decade, and had no legal status.” They also confirmed Bolívar’s daughter was placed in the care of a relative. According to a statement from the American College of Emergency Physicians, Dr. Bolívar is an emergency medicine resident at South Texas Health System in McAllen. “The value of a doctor that is taken out of this job, especially in an emergency setting that is the frontline physician who is taking care of all these situations, it makes an impact very negative to the community, to the care of the people,” said Dr. Guarecuco. Her detention comes as the United States faces a nationwide physician shortage. Dr. Guarecuco said that around 30 percent of doctors in the United States, and with the recent federal pause on visas from certain countries, the shortage could get even worse. Last week, Dr. Ezequiel Veliz, a Venezuelan family medicine doctor doing his residency in the Valley, was detained by agents at the Border Patrol checkpoint in Sarita. According to Dr. Guarecuco, Dr. Veliz’s work permit renewal was halted due to the recent federal pause on visas for Venezuelans, putting him in a legal limbo.