Venezuela To Accept Deported Migrants, Trump Says Amid Immigration Crackdown

President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Venezuela would take back “all” of the country’s migrants his administration wants to deport, an announcement that came on the heels of the release of six American hostages from the South American country late Friday night.

Trump celebrated the hostages’ return in a post to Truth Social, adding that the country had agreed to receive “all Venezuela illegal aliens who were encamped in the U.S.” — and that Venezuela would “supply the transportation.”

The back-to-back announcements came in the wake of envoy for special missions Richard Grenell’s talks with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in Caracas Friday. Maduro claimed victory in an election last year that was widely viewed as fraudulent — including by the U.S., who under the Biden administration recognized opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia as the rightful winner — and was sworn into office last month.

Trump has made immigration policy a cornerstone of his presidency, overseeing several deportation flights of migrants back to Guatemala, Honduras and Ecuador and ordering the detention of up to 30,000 migrants at Guantanamo Bay. Flights to the notorious detention center are set to start this weekend.

The Trump administration has also revoked Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans, a deportation protection granted to Venezuelan citizens during the period of political upheaval in the country.

While it confers immigrants a protected status against deportation, TPS does not offer a pathway for permanent residency. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants benefiting from TPS could face deportation once their status expires beginning in April.

Just last weekend, Trump used the threat of a sweeping 25 percent tariff on all goods imported from Colombia to pressure the country into receiving deportation flights after it initially refused U.S. military aircraft full of detained migrants.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also set to visit Latin America this weekend, part of the Trump administration’s efforts to get some of its southern neighbors to accept migrant flights from the U.S.