Venezuelan migrants deported by the U.S. disembark from a aircraft at Simon Bolivar Worldwide Airport in La Guaira, Venezuela on Feb. 20.
Javier Campos/Getty Pictures
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Javier Campos/Getty Pictures
Venezuela has introduced that it’ll resume accepting flights of its residents who’re deported by U.S. immigration authorities.
Jorge Rodríguez, the president of Venezuela’s Nationwide Meeting, mentioned on Saturday in a put up on social media that the repatriation flights would start once more as early as Sunday. “Migration is not a crime,” he added.
Rodríguez, who has been negotiating with U.S. officers on immigration points, mentioned Venezuelan authorities “will not rest” till they safe the return of any residents who require it.
The White Home didn’t instantly reply to NPR’s request for touch upon Sunday.
In his assertion, Rodríguez additionally alluded to the deportation of some Venezuelans to El Salvador earlier in March, when President Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act with a purpose to goal alleged members of a violent Venezuelan jail gang.
A complete of 238 Venezuelans have been deported in that operation, which stays beneath scrutiny by a federal choose who had tried to dam the deportation flights and continues to search info from the Trump administration about why they went forward. Of the 238, the Trump administration mentioned 137 folks have been deported beneath the Alien Enemies Act and 101 have been deported beneath common immigration proceedings.
Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has referred to as for the return of the Venezuelan migrants despatched by the U.S. to El Salvador, the place President Nayib Bukele mentioned they have been transferred to a mega-prison generally known as CECOT.
Households of among the Venezuelans who have been deported disputed the federal government’s claims that the lads had gang connections.
Maduro has mentioned the Venezuelan migrants have been kidnapped.
Venezuela stopped accepting repatriation flights from the U.S. on March 8. It got here after Trump introduced that the U.S. would cancel the Biden-era allow that allowed California-based Chevron to extract and export oil from Venezuela, a significant income for the nation.
However final week Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the Trump administration would impose “new, severe, and escalating sanctions” on the nation except it started accepting migrants once more.
Carrie Kahn contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro.
