US begins deportation flights to Venezuela as Trump ramps up anti-migration policies

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Deportation flights from the US to Venezuela have resumed as part of American President Donald Trump’s long-promised anti-immigration push.

Two Venezuelan planes, which together were carrying approximately 190 people, left a US army base in El Paso, Texas, on Monday bound for the South American country.

Except for a brief period under the Biden administration in October 2023, deportation flights from the US to Venezuela have been halted for years.

As a result of a severe economic crisis and political turmoil under the rule of authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro’, almost eight million Venezuelans left the country between 2014 and 2024.

From October 2023 to September 2024, Venezuelans accounted for the second highest number of “encounters” of any nationality at the southern US border, according to US Customs and Border Protection.

The resumption of deportation flights comes shortly after Trump’s Special Envoy Richard Grenell visited Caracas and met with Maduro, after which six Americans were freed from Venezuelan custody.

On Monday, the White House shared a photograph of Grenell overseeing the boarding of migrants onto one of the two Conviasa flights, and Grenell himself took to X to thank Trump for the deportations.

“Two planes of illegal immigrants left El Paso today headed to Venezuela — paid for by the Venezuelans,” he wrote.

Venezuelan state media also covered the arrival of the flights.

“This is the world we want, a world of peace, understanding, dialogue and cooperation,” Maduro said.

In an earlier statement, the Venezuelan government said it wanted to repatriate thousands of its citizens who have emigrated in recent years.

As part of Trump’s broader clampdown on migration, flights have started bringing immigrants to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. However, a federal judge in New Mexico on Sunday preemptively blocked the transfer of three Venezuelan men to the US military base there.

Lawyers for the men said that their clients “fit the profile of those the administration has prioritised for detention in Guantanamo, i.e. Venezuelan men detained in the El Paso area with (false) charges of connections with the Tren de Aragua gang.”