Deportation flights from the U.S. to Venezuela have resumed following President Donald Trump’s promise to intensify the fight against immigration. This happened after Trump’s special envoy Richard Grenell met with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
On Monday, two Venezuelan military planes, carrying up to 190 people, departed from a military base in El Paso, Texas, and headed to Venezuela. Deportation flights had been suspended for several years, except for a brief period during the Biden administration in October 2023.
Between 2014 and 2024, nearly eight million people left Venezuela due to the severe economic crisis and political instability caused by Maduro’s regime. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, from October 2023 to September 2024, Venezuelans became the second-largest group of migrants at the U.S. southern border.
The resumption of deportations came shortly after Grenell visited Caracas, met with Maduro, and helped secure the release of six American citizens from a Venezuelan prison. The White House published a photo of Grenell observing the boarding of migrants on one of Conviasa’s flights. In a post on the social media platform X, Grenell thanked Trump for resuming deportations, adding that “Venezuelans paid for these illegal immigrants.”
As part of Trump’s broader immigration policy, U.S. flights began transporting some immigrants to the Guantanamo prison in Cuba. However, on Sunday, a federal judge in New Mexico blocked the transfer of three Venezuelans to the military base, ruling that they did not meet the criteria for detention at Guantanamo, based on false allegations of ties to the Tren de Aragua gang.
