President Donald Trump made an important announcement on Saturday, touting the return of some American hostages that were being held in Venezuela and more after a U.S. envoy visited the South American nation.
The president made the announcement on his Truth Social account, where he also shared the news that his administration had reached an agreement with Venezuela to repatriate its citizens, including gang members, who are illegally in the United States.
“It is so good to have the Venezuela Hostages back home and, very important to note, that Venezuela has agreed to receive, back into their Country, all Venezuela illegal aliens who were encamped in the U.S., including gang members of Tren de Aragua. Venezuela has further agreed to supply the transportation back,” the president said.
“We are in the process of removing record numbers of illegal aliens from all Countries, and all Countries have agreed to accept these illegal aliens back. Furthermore, record numbers of criminals are being removed from our Country, and the Border numbers are the strongest they have been since the First Term of the Trump Administration!” he said.
Trump’s envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, met with officials from the Maduro administration last week, CNN reported.
“We are wheels up and headed home with these six American citizens. They just spoke to President Trump, and they couldn’t stop thanking him,” Grenell said in a post on X with a photo he shared of himself with the former prisoners.
“Friday’s prisoner release came after a meeting between Grenell and Maduro, which had been expected to cover the deportation of Venezuelan nationals from the US. Trump has prioritized his campaign promise of mass deportations, but Maduro has refused to take Venezuelan nationals back – and the US has generally been unable to send Venezuelans back because of frosty relations,” CNN reported.
“Gonzalez, who the US recognizes as Venezuela’s president-elect and who attended Trump’s inauguration, has warned the White House against cutting a deal with Maduro on deportation flights,” he said.
Trump’s administration, meanwhile, is also moving to remove illegal migrants who were allowed to stay in the U.S. temporarily under Biden administration parole programs.
In a memo signed on Thursday by the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, officials were given instructions on how to use powers to quickly deport the migrants that were previously given only for encounters at the southern border in certain circumstances under the Biden-Harris regime, The New York Times reported.
It also seems to provide officials with the authority to expel migrants from two significant Biden-era programs that have permitted over a million people to enter the country temporarily.
“Those programs — an app called CBP One that migrants could use to try to schedule appointments to enter the United States, and an initiative that let in certain migrants fleeing Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti — were key pillars of the Biden administration’s efforts to discourage illegal entries by allowing certain legal pathways. Immigrant advocates also worried that the memo could apply to Afghan and Ukrainian immigrants brought to the United States under separate programs,” the report said.
“The decision indicates that President Trump will try to use every facet of the immigration enforcement apparatus to crack down on a system he has long said has been abused and that he intends to target not just those who sneaked across the border but even those who followed previously authorized pathways to enter,” the Times added.
The migrants, who are often from dangerous nations, were granted a two-year period known as “parole” to stay in the United States legally, but the memo appears to allow for them to be deported sooner if not immediately.
Republicans have criticized the two Biden programs, likening them to a quasi-legal way to facilitate illegal immigration as approximately 1.4 million migrants utilized these programs to enter the country under Biden’s watch.
