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Miami Herald
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
U.S. speeds up Venezuelan deportations as thousands are sent back under Trump crackdown
Thousands of Venezuelans have been deported from the United States back to the South American country in just the past four months, part of the immigration crackdown led by President Donald Trump, vastly eclipsing the numbers deported in recent years. Among those expelled are hundreds of women and children, underscoring that many are not criminals, even though the administration claims it has been prioritizing those with criminal records. At the same time, other Venezuelans are returning home from Mexico through the Nicolas Maduro regime's controversial 'Vuelta a la Patria' — Return to the Homeland — program, a repatriation initiative launched well before Trump's second term, as rising Venezuelan migration across Latin America triggered widespread backlash in the region. As of May 21, more than 4,600 Venezuelans have returned home in recent months. Of those, 3,078 were deported directly from the U.S., according to data obtained by the Miami Herald from Votoscopio, a Venezuelan nonprofit that tracks repatriation flights. That total includes 273 women and 29 children. One of the children deported was Maikelys Antonella Espinoza, a two-year-old Venezuelan girl who had been held in U.S. custody since late 2024 after being separated from her parents, who were deported under controversial circumstances. She was returned to Venezuela on May 14 aboard a repatriation flight carrying 226 migrants. Her case has become a flashpoint in the growing political standoff between the Trump administration and the Maduro regime. Maduro has accused the U.S. of 'kidnapping' the child and committing what he called an 'egregious abuse of human rights.' Espinoza was received in Caracas and held in the arms of Venezuela's Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and First Lady Cilia Flores. She was later reunited with her mother, Yorelys Bernal, who had been deported days earlier. Her father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona, was deported on March 15, along with hundreds of other Venezuelans, on a flight to a mega proson in El Salvador. The family of three had originally emigrated from Peru, where their daughter was born. They were detained in May 2024 and accused of improper entry into the United States, triggering their separation and eventual deportation. Neither the U.S. nor the Venezuelan government has released detailed information about the identities or circumstances of those deported — except in politically significant cases, such as that of the Venezuelan toddler who remained in U.S. custody after her parents were apprehended at the border, incarcerated, and later deported. An additional 1,500 Venezuelans returned from Mexico in the 'Vuelve a la Patria' program, 40% of them women and children. The Venezuelan government has used the program as a political marketing tool to whitewash its role in the mass exodus that has forced more than 8 million people to flee due to humanitarian and economic crises and political persecution. Venezuelan officials have claimed — without providing evidence — that more than 1 million Venezuelans returned home in 2024 alone. Nonetheless, the scale and speed of recent deportations represent a dramatic shift. Between fiscal years 2019 and 2023, under both the Trump and Biden administrations, the U.S. deported a total of 3,256 Venezuelans—averaging just 651 per year—according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement's 2024 annual report, which ranked Venezuela among the top 10 countries of origin for deportees. In stark contrast, nearly the same number—3,078 Venezuelans—have been deported in just the past four months alone. According to Votoscopio's flight tracking data, 24 repatriation flights have been conducted since the renewed crackdown began. Of those, 17 were operated by Conviasa, the Venezuelan state-run airline sanctioned by the U.S. and previously banned from American airspace. In 2023, the Biden administration partially lifted sanctions on Conviasa to allow the airline to participate in deportation efforts. Most of the deportation flights departed from Texas, though two were sent from the U.S. Navy base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. One such flight on April 11 returned 35 Venezuelans, who had been imprisoned under accusations of being members of Tren de Aragua, the infamous Venezuelan gang. READ MORE: 'Give us back our sons': A look at the Venezuelan migrants Trump sent to Guantanamo The remaining seven flights were handled by Eastern Airlines and Omni Air International, an Oklahoma-based charter carrier known for conducting 'special high-risk' deportation missions. Venezuelans have become a central focus in the Trump administration's argument for terminating Temporary Protected Status. The administration claims that criminals have exploited TPS to remain in the U.S., despite the thorough background checks required to obtain the status. More than 350,000 Venezuelans face the threat of deportation following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows the Trump administration to end their protections while a federal court trial continues to challenge the legality of the program's termination. READ MORE: Supreme Court ruling on TPS stuns South Florida, leaves Venezuelan families in fear As deportations accelerate, advocates warn of escalating humanitarian consequences. Since Venezuela was designated for TPS in 2021, conditions have only worsened, not improved. This includes last year's electoral fraud, in which Maduro remained in power despite overwhelming evidence from the opposition that showed their candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, was the real winner.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Yahoo
ICE deported his brother to El Salvador, so he hid in Texas, then fled back to Venezuela
Jonferson Valera Yamarte, a young Venezuelan immigrant who had made his way to the U.S. last year, hid after he witnessed in March how federal agents arrested his brother and three friends in Dallas before deporting them to a maximum security mega prison in El Salvador. Now, he is no longer in fear: His family received him with a party at their home in Venezuela. 'It's the first time I've moved away from her, and I think it's going to be the last,' said Yamarte, hugging his mother, Mercedes, just minutes after being greeted with hugs, tears and a rain of celebration foam in the neighborhood of Los Pescadores in Maracaibo, his hometown in northwestern Venezuela. Yamarte, 21, flew from Mexico to Caracas on Thursday on a plane that was part of the Venezuelan government's official repatriation plan 'Return to the Homeland' and then traveled by land to Maracaibo. He got out of a military vehicle smiling after 7 a.m. on Saturday, before his neighborhood erupted in joy. Family and friends received him with hugs, claps and tears in their eyes, while they played 'Volver a casa' — Returning Home — a melancholic song that has become the anthem of the Venezuelan migration, which so far numbers close to eight million people. Dozens of balloons the color of Venezuela's tricolor flag and a 'welcome' sign decorated the facade of his mother's house, where a breakfast of sweet breads and cola drinks awaited him. Yamarte told the Miami Herald he decided to move immediately and live in hiding somewhere else in Texas after living through the immigration agents went into his apartment, handcuffed his brother Mervin and took him into custody on March 13. 'I left there so that I wouldn't have the same address. They were going to come for me,' he said. 'I worked with fear, I went to play soccer with fear, I walked on the streets with fear, as if I were being chased.' The young man emigrated from Venezuela in September 2023 and turned himself in to border authorities in El Paso, Texas, after a long land journey in which he had crossed the dangerous Darien jungle between Colombia and Panama. His brother had entered the United States first. In November 2023, Yamarte arrived in Dallas after being detained at the border for a couple of days. He got together with Mervin and several of his friends, also former residents of Los Pescadores, to work 'honestly' in a tortilla factory, he said. After Donald Trump was elected in November 2024, Yamarte said, he and his brother had decided to return to Venezuela, worried about Trump's comments attacking immigrants during his presidential campaign, he said. But they remained in Texas, he said, thinking that nothing would happen to them. They had papers that allowed them to remain in the U.S., they both thought. Armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided his apartment in the Texas city of Irving around noon on March 13. Yamarte said he watched as his brother Mervin Yamarte, 29, and friends Andy Perozo, 30, and Ringo Rincon, 39, all from the same Maraciabo neighborhood, were handcuffed and taken away. Authorities also arrested 23-year-old Edwar Herrera, another former Los Pescadores resident who had immigrated to the U.S. The four were deported on March 16 to the notorious Terrorism Confinment Center in El Salvador, along with more than 200 immigrants accused of belonging to the feared Tren de Aragua gang. Mervin Yamarte told the ICE officers that day that he had been allowed into the U.S. and that his documentation was up to date. The officers assured him that they were detaining him 'just for investigation,' Yamarte said. Federal agents took photographs of the detainees' tattoos: Rincon had an owl and his brother had the number 99, among others. Yamarte said it was his brother's favorite soccer number. 'A tattoo doesn't define you as a person,' he says. Neither he nor his brother had had any problems with the law in the United States, he said. U.S. authorities summoned Yamarte to appear in immigration court on April 6. That day, he had already crossed into Mexico through El Paso and traveled from Ciudad Juárez to Mexico City. He thought that having remained free for a few weeks in Texas was 'a sign from God,' he says. 'Sometimes, one is very foolish because of greed and money, thinking that I was going to stay despite what was happening' to other Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S., he added. But then, when he got the notice to appear in immigration court, he said, he became convinced he would be detained and deported, perhaps to the prison in El Salvador. 'I spoke with my mother and told her that I was not going to be in the United States anymore, that I was not a criminal. Why should they be persecuting me?' he said. Yamarte said he plans to start working in Venezuela again after spending time with his family. 'I want to keep moving forward,' he added. He said his brother is innocent and remains hopeful he will be released from the Salvadoran prison and return home to Maracaibo. His mother says she is happy, in the meantime, because two of her four children who emigrated to the United States are already back living with her Los Pescadores. She hopes Mervin and another of her sons will join them soon. Said his father, Alirio, who cried as he hugged him, 'You feel joy and sadness at the same time.'
Miami Herald
11-05-2025
- Miami Herald
ICE deported his brother to El Salvador, so he hid in Texas, then fled back to Venezuela
Jonferson Valera Yamarte, a young Venezuelan immigrant who had made his way to the U.S. last year, hid after he witnessed in March how federal agents arrested his brother and three friends in Dallas before deporting them to a maximum security mega prison in El Salvador. Now, he is no longer in fear: His family received him with a party at their home in Venezuela. 'It's the first time I've moved away from her, and I think it's going to be the last,' said Yamarte, hugging his mother, Mercedes, just minutes after being greeted with hugs, tears and a rain of celebration foam in the neighborhood of Los Pescadores in Maracaibo, his hometown in northwestern Venezuela. Yamarte, 21, flew from Mexico to Caracas on Thursday on a plane that was part of the Venezuelan government's official repatriation plan 'Return to the Homeland' and then traveled by land to Maracaibo. He got out of a military vehicle smiling after 7 a.m. on Saturday, before his neighborhood erupted in joy. Family and friends received him with hugs, claps and tears in their eyes, while they played 'Volver a casa' — Returning Home — a melancholic song that has become the anthem of the Venezuelan migration, which so far numbers close to eight million people. Dozens of balloons the color of Venezuela's tricolor flag and a 'welcome' sign decorated the facade of his mother's house, where a breakfast of sweet breads and cola drinks awaited him. Living in hiding in Texas Yamarte told the Miami Herald he decided to move immediately and live in hiding somewhere else in Texas after living through the immigration agents went into his apartment, handcuffed his brother Mervin and took him into custody on March 13. 'I left there so that I wouldn't have the same address. They were going to come for me,' he said. 'I worked with fear, I went to play soccer with fear, I walked on the streets with fear, as if I were being chased.' The young man emigrated from Venezuela in September 2023 and turned himself in to border authorities in El Paso, Texas, after a long land journey in which he had crossed the dangerous Darien jungle between Colombia and Panama. His brother had entered the United States first. In November 2023, Yamarte arrived in Dallas after being detained at the border for a couple of days. He got together with Mervin and several of his friends, also former residents of Los Pescadores, to work 'honestly' in a tortilla factory, he said. After Donald Trump was elected in November 2024, Yamarte said, he and his brother had decided to return to Venezuela, worried about Trump's comments attacking immigrants during his presidential campaign, he said. But they remained in Texas, he said, thinking that nothing would happen to them. They had papers that allowed them to remain in the U.S., they both thought. Armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided his apartment in the Texas city of Irving around noon on March 13. Yamarte said he watched as his brother Mervin Yamarte, 29, and friends Andy Perozo, 30, and Ringo Rincon, 39, all from the same Maraciabo neighborhood, were handcuffed and taken away. Authorities also arrested 23-year-old Edwar Herrera, another former Los Pescadores resident who had immigrated to the U.S. The four were deported on March 16 to the notorious Terrorism Confinment Center in El Salvador, along with more than 200 immigrants accused of belonging to the feared Tren de Aragua gang. Tattoos and 'a sign from God' Mervin Yamarte told the ICE officers that day that he had been allowed into the U.S. and that his documentation was up to date. The officers assured him that they were detaining him 'just for investigation,' Yamarte said. Federal agents took photographs of the detainees' tattoos: Rincon had an owl and his brother had the number 99, among others. Yamarte said it was his brother's favorite soccer number. 'A tattoo doesn't define you as a person,' he says. Neither he nor his brother had had any problems with the law in the United States, he said. U.S. authorities summoned Yamarte to appear in immigration court on April 6. That day, he had already crossed into Mexico through El Paso and traveled from Ciudad Juárez to Mexico City. He thought that having remained free for a few weeks in Texas was 'a sign from God,' he says. 'Sometimes, one is very foolish because of greed and money, thinking that I was going to stay despite what was happening' to other Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S., he added. But then, when he got the notice to appear in immigration court, he said, he became convinced he would be detained and deported, perhaps to the prison in El Salvador. 'I spoke with my mother and told her that I was not going to be in the United States anymore, that I was not a criminal. Why should they be persecuting me?' he said. Yamarte said he plans to start working in Venezuela again after spending time with his family. 'I want to keep moving forward,' he added. He said his brother is innocent and remains hopeful he will be released from the Salvadoran prison and return home to Maracaibo. His mother says she is happy, in the meantime, because two of her four children who emigrated to the United States are already back living with her Los Pescadores. She hopes Mervin and another of her sons will join them soon. Said his father, Alirio, who cried as he hugged him, 'You feel joy and sadness at the same time.'
New York Times
23-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Venezuela Accepts Flight Carrying Deportees From U.S. for First Time in Weeks
The Trump administration sent a flight carrying deportees from the United States to Venezuela on Sunday, the first such flight since the Venezuelan government reached an agreement with the Trump administration on Saturday to resume accepting them. Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela's interior minister, invited journalists to an airport near Caracas, the capital, on Sunday at 8 p.m. for the arrival of the flight, which the government said was part of what it is calling the Return to the Homeland. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees U.S. Immigration and Customs, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration has made it a priority to get the Venezuelan government to agree to accept flights carrying people deported from the United States. In recent years, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have entered the country amid a historic surge in migration, and during his campaign, President Trump vowed to carry out mass deportations and to send home migrants. However, because the United States has limited diplomatic relations with the autocratic regime of Nicolás Maduro, the U.S. government has not been able to send regular deportation flights to Venezuela. After briefly agreeing to accept flights after Mr. Trump took office, Mr. Maduro ceased doing so weeks ago, after the Trump administration revoked a Biden-era policy that had allowed more oil to be produced in Venezuela and exported. Mr. Maduro then came under intense pressure from the Trump administration. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media that Venezuela would face new, 'severe and escalating' sanctions if it refused to accept its repatriated citizens. This weekend, it announced it would take flights again beginning on Sunday. The Venezuelan government's willingness to resume accepting the flights also appeared related to the plight of Venezuelan migrants the Trump administration recently sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador with little to no due process. To do so, the administration invoked an obscure wartime authority from 1798 called the Alien Enemies Act and secured the agreement of El Salvador's strongman leader, Nayib Bukele. Once in El Salvador, the migrants were put in the country's prison system, whose conditions, according to many experts, constitute human rights abuses. In a statement on Saturday, a representative for the Venezuelan government said, 'Migration isn't a crime, and we will not rest until we achieve the return of all of those in need and rescue our brothers kidnapped in El Salvador.' The deportees being repatriated on Sunday were not being flown directly to Venezuela. Flight-tracking data showed on Sunday that a plane operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was scheduled to arrive in the afternoon at Soto Cano air base in Honduras, where the U.S. military has long had a presence, and which the Trump administration has previously used as a transfer point for deportees. A plane sent by the Venezuelan state airline, Conviasa, was scheduled to arrive at the Soto Cano base around the same time, for an apparent handoff. Honduran officials did not immediately respond to a request to confirm Sunday's transfer of Venezuelan deportees at Soto Cano. But earlier, Honduras's deputy foreign minister, Tony García, said in a message, 'Honduras will help serve as a humanitarian bridge between friendly governments that request our support.' It was unclear how many deportees were on Sunday's flight, but the planes sent by the United States and by Venezuela can each carry more than 200 people, according to Thomas Cartwright, who tracks deportation flights on a volunteer basis. Sunday's deportation flight is only the fourth such flight that Venezuelan officials have agreed to accept since President Trump took office. On Feb. 10, the Venezuelan authorities sent two Conviasa planes to pick up nearly 200 migrants from Texas. On Feb. 20, American authorities abruptly removed 177 Venezuelans that they had sent to Guantánamo, the U.S. military base in Cuba, flying them to the Soto Cano air base, where they were handed off to Venezuelan authorities, who flew them back to Venezuela on a Conviasa plane.
