Venezuela agrees to take back undocumented immigrants from the US, Trump says

President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that the Nicolás Maduro regime has agreed to take back undocumented Venezuelans immigrants that have come to the United States, including members of the notorious Tren de Aragua criminal gang.

The announcement comes after a meeting in Caracas between Maduro and Trump envoy Richard Grenell, after which the socialist regime released six American prisoners. It is not yet clear what if anything Maduro obtained in exchange of accepting future Venezuelan deportees — which could potentially add up to hundreds of thousands.

“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 wrote on the social media platform Truth Social, adding that Caracas has agreed “to supply the transportation back.”

The deal is viewed with suspicion by representatives of the Venezuelan community in South Florida.

Earlier this month, opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez — whom the United States and a growing number of countries view as Venezuela’s legitimate leader — had asked then-President-elect Trump not to make concessions to Maduro in exchange of accepting Venezuelan deportees.

Getting the regime to accept them back, however, appears to have been on top of the president’s agenda concerning Venezuela, and Saturday morning Trump announced the news.

A prominent leader of South Florida’s Venezuelan community, Adelys Ferro, executive director of the Venezuelan American Caucus, warned that any agreement between Trump and Maduro will have “severe consequences for the path to democracy in Venezuela, and for the future of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who, unfortunately, will be subject to deportation.”

Ferro described the agreement as a form of trafficking Venezuelans. “The vast majority entered the U.S. with a hearing and parole,” she said. “Only a few Venezuelans are involved in criminal activity or are linked to groups like Tren de Aragua, but they do not represent the majority.”

Ferro said she is losing hope for any restoration of democracy in Venezuela because there has been no mention of the Venezuelan opposition since negotiations began with Grenell’s trip to Caracas on Friday. Ferro said there has been no acknowledgment by the Trump administration of Edmundo Gonzalez — who is considered by most Western countries to have defeated Maduro in the July 2024 presidential election — or of opposition leader María Corina Machado.

“There hasn’t been a single statement, post, or tweet from Trump or Grenell addressing the fraudulent elections, the election results, or the opposition leaders,” Ferro said. “Many Venezuelans were hopeful that once Trump was in office, he would take action to liberate Venezuela, but so far, it looks like he’s turning a blind eye.”

The Venezuelan regime has not independently announced a similar agreement.

The comments come the day after Grenell met with Maduro to convey a simple message: “Take back all of the Venezuelan criminals and gang members that have been exported to the United States,” Trump officials told reporters in a call Friday. One of the officials denied that the meeting was part of “quid pro quo” negotiations with Caracas ahead Secretary of State Marco Rubio embarking on a diplomatic trip throughout Latin America beginning Saturday.

On Saturday, hundreds of thousand of Venezuelans were holding their breath as they waited to learn whether the Trump administration would renew extensions for rough half of the 505,000 recipients of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuela. The federal program temporarily gives work authorization for people from countries in turmoil. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had until Saturday to renew or terminate the extensions.

In addition, thousands of Venezuelans who arrived under a humanitarian parole program that began under the Biden administration could find themselves placed in expedited removal. Trump has ended the program and immigration authorities have expanded the pool of deportable immigrants to include beneficiaries of humanitarian parole.

On Friday night, Grenell returned with six American citizens in tow on his plane who had been imprisoned in Venezuela. Trump wrote on Truth Social that “it is so good to have the Venezuelan hostages back home.”

There have been no repatriation flights to Venezuela for a year, according to independent analyst Tom Cartwright, who tracks Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations. The flights ceased after tensions escalated with the South American country when the Biden administration announced it would reinstate sanctions after Venezuela did not allow opposition candidates run in last year’s elections.

Since Trump returned to the White House two weeks ago, his administration has announced sweeping measures aimed at overhauling the U.S. immigration system. That includes attempts to limit birthright citizenship, which a federal judge has initially blocked in court; the termination of a parole program that allowed over 500,000 Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, Haitians, and Cubans to come to the United States; and a declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border. During his campaign, Trump promised to conduct mass deportations of the millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States.

“We are in the process of removing record numbers of illegal aliens from all Countries, and all Countries have agreed to accept these illegal aliens back. Furthermore, record numbers of criminals are being removed from our Country, and the Border numbers are the strongest they have been since the First Term of the Trump Administration!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.

However, immigration officials, advocates and attorneys have noted that the federal government does not currently have the staffing, resources or infrastructure to carry out a deportation operation of such a scale. Deportation agreements are also contingent on another country accepting back its nationals.

Given diplomatic relations and dangerous conditions in other countries, the United States has previously had issues sending deportation flights to certain place. That includes places that are large sources of migration to the United States, such as Cuba and Haiti.