Deportation Flights Return Migrants From U.S. to Venezuela

Two flights carrying Venezuelan migrants from the United States back to Venezuela will arrive late Monday in the capital, Caracas, the country’s communication’s ministry said.

The flights are a major victory for the Trump administration, which made a campaign promise to deport millions of undocumented migrants. To accomplish this goal, President Trump needs Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s autocratic president who has found himself increasingly isolated by world leaders, to agree to accept some of those people.

Two planes owned by the Venezuelan airline Conviasa left Fort Bliss in Texas, where migrants subject to deportation are being held, at around 10:45 a.m. They were set to arrive in Caracas at 7:15 p.m., according to FlightAware, a flight tracking website.

The White House confirmed the move in a message on X.

“Repatriation flights to Venezuela have resumed,” said the post. “MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN.”

Following a rupture in the relationship between the United States and Venezuela in 2019, Mr. Maduro’s government had refused to accept deported citizens, except during a brief period in the Biden administration.

The announcement about the flights follows a recent visit by a Trump adviser, Richard Grenell, to Venezuela. Mr. Grenell returned to the United States with six Americans who had been detained by the Maduro government.

In authorizing the flights, the United States is sending migrants back to a nation run by an autocrat who has spent years imprisoning political opponents and others he views as unpatriotic.

In a statement to the news media, Mr. Maduro’s government said it had been informed by U.S. authorities that several deportees were part of a criminal group called the Tren de Aragua.

Neither the U.S. nor Venezuela has provided proof of this.

But Mr. Maduro’s government assured the public that the returning Venezuelans accused of gang membership “will be subject to a rigorous investigation as soon as they touch Venezuelan soil and will be subject to the actions provided for in our justice system.”

For years the Venezuelan justice system has been used a tool of the governments of Mr. Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez.

Laura Dib, a Venezuela analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, said the politicization of the justice system had been documented extensively by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, United Nations treaty bodies and the United Nations Fact Finding Mission in Venezuela.

“I don’t expect them to have any guarantee of due process upon return,” she said of the deportees. “If anything, I think there could be retaliations against people that had fled to the U.S.”

Venezuela has experienced an extraordinary economic crisis in recent years. Many people have left the country for economic reasons. But others, including former members of the military and political activists, have fled out of fear of persecution.

And in recent months, Mr. Maduro’s government has been rounding up not just political activists known for vocal anti-governments statements, but also people who pass by protests and Venezuelans who appear to have little involvement in politics.

In his first term, President Trump took a hard line against Mr. Maduro, imposing economic sanctions and backing an opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, in an attempt to oust the Venezuelan leader. In 2020, federal prosecutors in the United States accused Mr. Maduro of involvement in a narcotrafficking conspiracy, and the State Department offered $15 million for help in his arrest. (Mr. Biden raised it $25 million.)

But the first weeks of Mr. Trump’s second term have been marked by a friendlier approach to Mr. Maduro.

Mr. Grenell’s visit to Caracas in January was an important win for Mr. Maduro, who is accused of stealing a recent election.

It was the first public visit of a U.S. official to Caracas in years, lending an air of legitimacy to a leader who has used force and repression to remain in power.

A photograph of Mr. Grenell and Mr. Maduro smiling together was shared widely by Venezuelan officials and in state media.

In the statement to the news media, the Venezuelan government said it had reached a deal with the Trump administration to have Venezuelan planes retrieve its citizens so that the transfer could be done “with absolute respect for their dignity and human rights.

The government also called for “a new beginning of relations between both countries” in which they could “establish mechanisms of direct cooperation” to combat organized crime and smuggler networks “that have harmed and defrauded thousands of our compatriots by bringing them to the United States.”