First Deportation Flights Touch Down In Venezuela In Major Victory For Trump Agenda

Two deportation flights carrying Venezuelan nationals flew back to Venezuela Monday, marking a major milestone for the Trump administration’s aim of removing illegal migrant criminals from the United States.

The flights left Fort Bliss in Texas via the Venezuelan-based Conviasa airlines, which are being used to return Venezuelan deportees from the U.S., according to The New York Times. The two deportation flights are the first in roughly a year since Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro began refusing to accept repatriation flights from the U.S. in response to economic sanctions.

The Biden administration previously reached a deal with Maduro’s government in October 2023 to return Venezuelan nationals, but only deported roughly 1,800 of them on 15 flights before the Venezuelan government rejected them completely by February 2024. Those repatriated by the Biden administration were just a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans detained at the southern border.

“Repatriation flights to Venezuela have resumed, with Ambassador Richard Grenell overseeing the first two flights,” the White House confirmed via a social media post. “MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN.”

The flights reportedly carried members of the ruthless Tren de Aragua gang, which has origins in the Venezuelan prison system, according to Maduro’s government. However, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could not immediately confirm that detail in a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation