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