While celebrating Maduro’s capture, Venezuelan immigrants worry about deportation

WASHINGTON— After President Trump ordered the attack that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, celebrations broke out in Venezuelan communities across the United States.

But for many of the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants facing possible deportation, the relief and joy have been punctuated by fear of what an administration that has singled out Venezuelans as targets will do next.

“Many of us ask ourselves, ‘What will happen to us now?'” said the 39-year-old AG, who lives in Tennessee and asked to be referred to by his initials because he does not have legal status. “We asked,” he said. Still, Maduro’s ouster gave him great hope for his homeland.

Venezuelans began fleeing in droves in 2014 as economic collapse led to widespread food and medicine shortages as well as political repression. About 8 million Venezuelans now live outside the country, including 1.2 million in the US

AG and his son, now 18, arrived at the southern border in 2019. He said they have since made a good living, owning a shipping company with delivery trucks, paying taxes and obeying the law.

Maduro’s fall left him with mixed feelings.

“It’s very clear that he was a dictator, a lot of people died because of him and he refused to give up power, but the reason they went into Venezuela was because, in my opinion, what President Trump did was illegal,” she said. “Innocent people died because of the bombs. I pray to God there is a good reason for all this.”

Dozens of Venezuelans and others were killed in the US invasion; A government official said there were more than 100 people, including civilians.

Trump administration frames Venezuela operation as opportunity for Venezuelans like AG “They can now return to the country they love and rebuild its future,” said Matthew Tragesser, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Katie Blankenship, a Miami-based attorney with Sanctuary of the South who represents many Venezuelans facing deportation, sees a less promising future.

“We will see increased targeting of Venezuelans to force them to leave the United States to a political and socioeconomic environment that is likely to be more unstable and subject to greater abuse,” he said.

The Venezuelan community in the United States has grown in part because the Biden administration has expanded entry routes into the country.

As a volunteer, help a Venezuelan immigrant with storage units from a volunteer-run program that distributes donations to recently arrived Venezuelan immigrants in need in Miami, Fla., in 2023.

(Eva Marie Uzcategui / Los Angeles Times)

One of these programs allowed more than one 117,000 Venezuelans The right to purchase flights directly to the US and stay for two years if they have a US-based fiscal sponsor and have passed a background check. Other Venezuelans entered land ports of entry legally after scheduling meetings with border officials.

By the end of the Biden administration, more than 600,000 Venezuelans had protection from deportation under Temporary Protected Status, a program used by both Republican and Democratic administrations for immigrants who cannot return home due to armed conflict, natural disaster or other “extraordinary and temporary circumstances.”

During the campaign, Trump repeatedly referred to Venezuelan immigrants as criminals and singled them out above other nationalities — in 64% of speeches. Axis analysis showed. He has repeatedly said, without evidence, that Venezuela is emptying its prisons and mental hospitals to flood the United States with immigrants.

One of Trump’s first acts as president was to designate the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as a group. foreign terrorist organization. Within two months, he invoked the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century law of war, to deport to El Salvador 252 Venezuelan men accused of being members of Tren de Aragua; Here he was imprisoned and tortured, although many were subjected to torture. no criminal history In the USA or Latin America.

The Trump administration subsequently removed protections for Venezuelans with fiscal sponsors and TPS, with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem calling the latter “against the national interest.”

One September Federal Register Notice, Noem said TPS for Venezuelans undermines the administration’s foreign policy goals because one consequence of allowing Venezuelans into the United States is to “relieve pressure on the Maduro regime to enact domestic reforms and facilitate conditions for safe return.” In other words, if Venezuelans return home, it will put pressure on the government to make reforms.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem with U.S. Attorney. Gen. Pam Bondi (left) and Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry (right) attend a press conference to announce the opening of a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility to house immigrants convicted of crimes in West Feliciana County, Louisiana, on September 3, 2025, near Camp 57 at Angola prison, Louisiana State Penitentiary and America’s largest maximum security prison farm.

(Matthew Hilton/AFP via Getty Images)

The administration has made conflicting assessments of conditions in Venezuela. Noem wrote that although some negative conditions remain, “there have been notable improvements in many areas, including the economy, public health, and crime.”

However, throughout the year the State Department continued to reorganize. A travel advisory involving “extreme danger” On behalf of Venezuela, we call on Americans to leave the country immediately.

The situation for Venezuelans in the United States became even more complicated after an Afghanistan man was accused of shooting two National Guard members in November; In response, the administration froze immigration cases of people the administration deemed “high risk” from 39 countries, including Venezuela. This means that anyone applying for asylum, a visa, a green card, or any other form of assistance will remain in limbo indefinitely.

The Justice Department appealed after a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in September that the Trump administration had used the Alien Adversaries Act. In a support briefing submitted in December, the Justice Department cited rising tensions with Venezuela.

David SmildeInvading Venezuela could justify reinvoking the Alien Enemies Act, the Tulane University sociologist and expert on Venezuelan politics said.

The law says the president can apply Alien Enemies Act not only in times of “declared war” but also when a foreign government threatens or carries out an “invasion” or “predatory attack” against the United States

“I think it’s going to be difficult now for the court to say, ‘No, you can’t use that,'” Smilde said.

As U.S. officials promise to improve conditions in Venezuela and encourage citizens to return, they may invoke the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport undocumented immigrants who do not leave voluntarily, Smilde said.

“There are several layers to this,” he said, “and none of them look good for Venezuelan immigrants.”

This Venezuelan couple shared their story about why they left their three children in their home country and talked about their experiences during their trip to the United States at Parkside Community Church in Sacramento on June 16, 2023.

(Jose Luis Villegas / For the Times)

Jose, a 28-year-old Venezuelan living east of Los Angeles, fled Venezuela in 2015 after being imprisoned and beaten for criticizing the government. He lived in Colombia and Peru before illegally crossing the U.S. border in 2022 and currently has a pending asylum application. Jose asked to be referred to by his middle name for fear of retaliation from the US government.

News this week that an ICE agent shot and killed a woman in Minnesota added to her anxiety.

“You come here because supposedly this is a country where there is freedom of expression and there is more security, but with this government you are now afraid of being killed,” he said. “And he was a US citizen. Imagine what they could do to me?”

People visit the memorial for Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on January 7.

(Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Jose qualifies for a work permit based on his pending asylum application, but that permit application has been frozen due to an executive order following the National Guard shooting.

Jose said the news of Maduro’s arrest was bittersweet because his mother and grandmother did not live to witness that day. He said his mother died of kidney failure last year due to lack of medical care, leaving him as the sole breadwinner for his two sisters who remain in Venezuela with their disabled father.

Still, he said he was pleased with what Trump did in Venezuela.

“People say he’s stealing our oil,” he said, “but he’s been stealing Cuban, Chinese and Iranian oil for 25 years and it hasn’t improved our lives.”

Many Venezuelans were encouraged by the news that Venezuela would release a “significant number” of political prisoners as a peace gesture.

For Jose, this is not enough. Venezuelan government I gave the order to the police To search for anyone who encourages or supports an attack by US forces, leading to the detention of journalists and civilians.

“Venezuela remains the same,” he said. “The same disgrace, the same poverty, the same government oppression.”

The AG said he was pleased that Noem said Sunday on Fox News that every Venezuelan with TPS “has the opportunity to apply for refugee status and that evaluation will move forward.” But management quickly stepped back and said that was not the case.

Instead, Noem and other administration officials have further reinforced the idea that Venezuelans without permanent legal status should leave the country. Noem he told Fox News He said there were no plans to stop deportation flights despite the political uncertainty in Venezuela.

Tragesser, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman, said the agency’s position has not changed.

“USCIS encourages all Venezuelans in the United States illegally to use the CBP Home app to help them return to their country in a safe and orderly manner,” he said.