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.
President Donald Trump was re-elected into office on the promise to conduct the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
Around 8 million Venezuelans have fled the country under Maduro, a leftist autocratic leader who has overseen rampant inflation, economic turmoil and political repression. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan nationals have since flocked en masse to the U.S., largely by unlawfully crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, Customs and Border Protection data show.
Amid the border crisis that began under the Biden administration, Venezuela quickly became one of the top sources of illegal migrants to the U.S. A number of Venezuelan nationals have allegedly been behind high-profile crimes across in the U.S., such as the murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, the murder of Laken Riley and the apparent Tren de Aragua takeover of apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado.
A massive number of Venezuelan illegal migrants in ICE detention with nowhere to go would’ve become a logistical nightmare for the Trump administration, but Grenell, now serving as a top diplomat for the president, visited the South American country in late January and was able to secure an agreement with the Maduro government. Grenell was also able to return home with six Americans who had been detained by the Maduro regime
“Venezuela has agreed to receive, back into their Country, all Venezuela illegal aliens who were encamped in the U.S., including gang members of Tren de Aragua,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Feb 1. “Venezuela has further agreed to supply the transportation back.”
For other recalcitrant countries that refuse to accept deportees from the U.S., the Trump administration has options. Trump has opened up a section of Guantanamo Bay to house illegal migrants, and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has offered his mega prison facility to house criminal illegal migrants from the U.S.
Additionally, Guatemala has agreed to take in deportees from other countries and the Mexican government has expressed openness to accepting non-Mexican deportees.
The Colombian president momentarily refused to take back his deportees in January, but quickly changed his position after Trump threatened to slap his country with sweeping tariffs.
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