MIAMI — Venezuelans in South Florida and across the country expressed outrage, fear and uncertainty Saturday after President Donald Trump announced Venezuela will take back its nationals deported from the United States.

“It’s heartbreaking that after seven years of hard work, studying for my degree, I’m still being targeted,” said Grecia Pacheco, 27, who moved to the U.S. from Venezuela in 2017 and lives in North Miami. “I’d rather seek refuge in another country than go back to Venezuela.”

Trump said Saturday on the social media site Truth Social that the Nicolás Maduro regime has agreed to accept the return of undocumented Venezuelan immigrants, including members of the infamous Tren de Aragua criminal gang, sparking heightened fears about the safety and future of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in the U.S. There are as many as a million Venezuelans in the U.S. who fled the leftist regime in Caracas.

Pacheco said the Trump administration is “playing with the lives of fellow Venezuelans who fled.” Pacheco has been a beneficiary since 2021 of the federal policy known as Temporary Protected Status, which shields over half a million Venezuelans from deportation.

A recent rollback by the Trump administration of an 18-month extension for these protections threatens to end the program soon, leaving many Venezuelans uncertain about their future in the U.S.

Pacheco denounced what she called the unfair criminalization of Venezuelans, many of whom are themselves fleeing groups like the Tren de Aragua gang. “I don’t even know one member of Tren de Aragua, and I don’t ever want to meet them,” she said.

Though Pacheco acknowledged the U.S. government’s past criticism of Maduro, she is disillusioned by the agreement that would send Venezuelans back to a regime they escaped. “It feels like they are playing with us and using us,” she added. “It’s as if this new administration is shaking hands with a dictator.”

Paola Sirignano, 21, remembers leaving Venezuela shortly after the death of socialist leader Hugo Chávez and the controversial rise of Maduro to power. Now a junior at Florida International University, she and her family became legal residents in 2021, after delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The whole process was nerve-wracking,” she said.

Belkis Lopez, 59, a Miami resident for four years, who is an asylum-seeker and current TPS beneficiary, said Venezuelans like her without criminal records should not be unfairly labeled.

“Those who have come to work, we have done things the right way,” Lopez said. “We do not have criminal records even in our country.”

Persecution for political reasons

William Diaz, the founder of Casa de Venezuela Orlando, an advocacy group that comprises more than 80 nonprofit organizations from New York to California, expressed his concerns about what he sees as growing hostility towards his countrymen in the U.S..

“There is persecution and hate speech against Venezuelans for political reasons,” Diaz said.

An American citizen for 31 years, Diaz said the Venezuelan community has long been known for its educational and professional achievements. “We have Venezuelans at NASA, at Harvard, and in top positions in society,” he said.

In central Florida, the Orlando resident said, “three philharmonic orchestras are made up of 90% Venezuelan musicians, and there are countless other examples of how our community contributes to the economy and social fabric of this country.

“Why aren’t politicians from South Florida and across the nation speaking out against this persecution?” he added.

Doral City Councilman Rafael Pineyro, the only Venezuelan council member in the city with the largest Venezuelan population in the U.S., expressed his “deep concern and solidarity with Venezuelan citizens who may face deportation, urging authorities to consider the cases of current TPS beneficiaries separately due to the ongoing political and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.”

Pineyro said criminal gangs like Tren de Aragua do not deserve to be in the U.S. and must be deported, but he pointed out that Maduro’s dictatorship continues to repress and torture Venezuelans. “We must focus on removing the usurper Maduro, so the Venezuelan people can finally regain their freedom.”

‘Trafficking Venezuelans’

Adelys Ferro, a prominent leader within South Florida’s Venezuelan community and executive director of the Venezuelan American Caucus, sharply condemned any agreement between Trump and Maduro’s regimen, warning of “severe consequences for the path to democracy in Venezuela and for the future of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who, tragically, will face deportation.”

Ferro denounced the announcement Saturday as a form of “trafficking Venezuelans,” saying the majority of Venezuelan immigrants entered the U.S. legally after immigration hearings and obtaining parole status. “Only a small fraction are involved in criminal activities or connected to groups like Tren de Aragua, but they do not represent the majority of Venezuelans,” she said.

Ferro expressed growing disillusionment with the prospects for democracy in Venezuela, criticizing the Trump administration for its silence on Venezuela’s opposition figures since a trip to Caracas on Friday by Trump’s special envoy, Richard Grenell. She lamented the lack of recognition for Edmundo Gonzalez — widely regarded as the winner of the disputed 2024 Venezuelan presidential election — and María Corina Machado, the leading opposition figure in her country.

“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 noted. “Many Venezuelans hoped Trump would take action to free our country, but now it feels like he’s turning a blind eye.”

Trump’s announcement came a meeting in Caracas between Grenell and Maduro, 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 of people.

“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.”

Emilio Buitrago, a Pittsburgh resident and co-founder of Casa Venezuela Pennsylvania, said Venezuelans in the U.S. are outraged, whether they support Trump or not, to see him reaching agreements with Maduro after Grenell’s meeting with the Venezuelan strongman in Caracas. “Every government is using that meeting as a propaganda tool to advance their own political agenda,” he said.

Buitrago said he agrees that any immigrant who has committed a crime should be deported regardless of what country they come from, but that “attacking” a community of more than 505,000 Venezuelans who are protected by TPS “who are doing things legally, who have come to work, respecting the laws, contributing with their talent and work to the growth of the country, and then overnight they are going to be deported is absurd.

“This is a call to all Venezuelans, regardless of their political ideology, to call their representatives to show them that we are people who contribute to this country,” Buitrago said “When democratic conditions exist in Venezuela, many would be willing to leave with the talent acquired here to rebuild the nation. But... Venezuelans should not be deported from the country from which they fled. “

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