Planes operated by Venezuela’s national airline Conviasa have landed in Caracas carrying migrants deported from the United States (U.S.), Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on Monday.
“The first flight carrying Venezuelans returning to their homeland has landed thanks to the ‘Return to the Homeland’ programme which is now being reinstated after having been suspended in the U.S…
“This is for some time due to the policies of former administration. At present, there is an open and direct dialogue between our government and the US government,” Cabello said.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said that two planes with appropriately 190 migrants on board landed in the country.
The president added that Caracas and Washington agreed to resume the programme on return of migrants after his recent meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Richard Grenell.
On Jan. 29, U.S. media reported that U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem had terminated the extension of temporary stay permits for over 600,000 Venezuelans.
This is ending deportation protections granted by the previous administration.
At the same time, Trump’s director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tom Homan, said that U.S. immigration authorities had deported more than 4,000 undocumented immigrants in the first week alone since the raids began.
After his inauguration, which took place on Jan. 20, Trump had said that he would put efforts to immediately stop irregular migrants from crossing the U.S. border and begin the process of extraditing millions.
Trump also declared a nationwide state of emergency over the situation at the southern U.S. border. (RIA/NAN)
