Second planeload of Venezuelans deported from the US this week lands in Caracas

Antonio Maria Delgado, Miami Herald on Apr 4, 2025

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A new planeload of migrants deported from the U.S. landed Friday morning in Caracas, as the Trump administration continues to send Venezuelans back to their home country.

The flight with 208 passengers on board, which included 30 women and two children, is the second from the United States that lands in Venezuela in the past five days, following Sunday’s arrival of a plane with 175 migrants that took off from Texas.

Among those sent back to Venezuela on Friday were a number of migrants who had criminal records, Venezuelan minister of Transportation Ramón Velásquez said on state-run television, though he did not provide details.

On Thursday, two different flights on the state-owned airline Conviasa landed in Venezuela carrying migrants who were in Mexico and Honduras. As of Friday, 2,190 Venezuelans have been taken back by Venezuela since February, following a meeting held in Caracas between socialist ruler Nicolás Maduro and President Doanld Trump’s envoy, Richard Grenell.

In that meeting, Maduro agreed to take back deported migrants in exchange for the U.S. allowing his regime to continue selling oil. That agreement, however, fell apart a few days after, after Trump claimed the Venezuelan strongman was not taking back the deported migrants quickly enough.

While the Trump administration has revoked the licenses that allowed foreign oil firms to keep operating in Venezuela since then, Maduro has continued to allow flights with deported migrants to land in his country, using the arrivals for propaganda purposes.

Earlier this week, Maduro announced that his regime would send the Conviasa plane to Mexico to retrieve 300 migrants, most of them women and children, whom he claims had fled the United States fearing persecution.

Maduro said this was necessary because of the Trump administration’s intensified deportation policies, which have seen Venezuelan migrants deported to a mega prison in El Salvador, accused of having gang ties. Washington claims many of the deportees are connected to the infamous Tren de Aragua gang, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization.

Over 7.7 million Venezuelans have fled their country in recent years, escaping violence, political persecution and economic collapse they attribute to the regime. More than 900,000 have sought refuge in the United States, but many now fear deportation as the Trump administration tightens immigration policies.

The administration’s recent crackdown on Venezuelan migrants has drawn sharp criticism from human rights activists and legal experts. Under new expedited deportation measures, Venezuelans suspected of gang affiliations are being sent to El Salvador without being given the right to a legal defense.

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