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.

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.

Trump’s announcement also coincided with the renewal for six months of a license for U.S. oil company Chevron to continue its operations in Venezuela. Although the extension was set to automatically renew on Saturday, the fact that it was not halted was being interpreted by some Venezuelans circles as a sign that the Trump administration is willing to allow the regime to continue selling its oil in the United States. Initially granted by the Biden administration in November 2022, the license has become an important source of income for the Caracas regime. Chevron is producing about 200,000 barrels of oil in the South American country.

It is not known if Chevron’s operations in Venezuela were at all discussed in the meeting between Grenelle and Maduro.

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.

‘Severe consequences’

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.”

Grecia Pacheco, 27, who moved to the U.S. from Venezuela in 2017 and lives in North Miami, said Saturday after the news broke that she believes the Trump administration is playing with the lives of fellow Venezuelans who have fled their country.

Pacheco, who was covered by the TPS protection in 2021, said Venezuelans are often unfairly portrayed as criminals, as if they are all associated with the Tren de Aragua gang — the very group many Venezuelans are trying to escape.

“I don’t even know one Tren de Aragua, and I don’t ever want to meet them,” she said.

While Pacheco and many in the Venezuelan community have appreciated the U.S. government’s criticism of Nicolás Maduro, she is disillusioned with Trump’s announcement that the Maduro regime has agreed to take back undocumented Venezuelan immigrants.

“Right now, it feels like they are playing with us and using us,” she said. “It feels like this new administration is shaking hands with a dictator.”

Pacheco is a senior at Florida International University living in Miami-Dade, pursuing a degree in digital journalism. She receives no government assistance for her education and has had to take semesters off to work and save money.

Pacheco said she and her family would rather seek refuge in another country than return to Venezuela, especially given her outspoken criticism of the Venezuelan government through her work as a journalist.

“It’s very sad that I’ve been here for more than seven years, working so hard, studying to get my bachelor’s, and I’m still being targeted,” she said.

Prisoners released

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.

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