Trump Says Venezuela Agreed to Take Illegal Immigrants Back, Pay for Transportation

Illegal immigrants from Venezuela, who boarded a bus in Texas, wait to be transported to a local church by volunteers after being dropped off outside the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris, at the Naval Observatory in Washington on Sept. 15, 2022. Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump said on Feb. 1 that Venezuela has agreed to receive all Venezuelan illegal immigrants arrested inside the United States and provide for their transportation to their home country.

“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,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Venezuela has further agreed to supply the transportation back.”

His comment came after the U.S. special envoy, Richard Grenell, met with Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 31 and brought back six American citizens formerly detained in Venezuela, according to photos that he posted on social media.

“We are wheels up and headed home with these 6 American citizens. They just spoke to [Trump] and they couldn’t stop thanking him,” Grenell said in a post on X on Jan. 31.

Trump’s Feb. 1 post also made reference to the six Americans, saying that “it is so good to have the Venezuela Hostages back home.”

However, the White House stated that the high-level visit does not mean that the United States recognizes Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader. The State Department called a disputed election in July 2024 illegitimate. The two countries have a fraught recent history marked by broken relations, sanctions, and other accusations, with Maduro recently threatening to invade Puerto Rico.

In a similar situation, Colombian officials last week said the government would agree to take back its nationals illegally living in the United States after a standoff between Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro over U.S. military deportation flights. Both had threatened to impose tariffs but later reached a deal, with officials confirming soon after that the deportation flights resumed.

“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,” Trump also wrote on Feb. 1. “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!”

Mass deportations of illegal immigrants from the United States were a major campaign promise during Trump’s successful presidential campaign in 2024.

After taking office on Jan. 20, the president has signed a number of immigration- and border-related executive orders, including an attempt to end birthright citizenship that was later paused by a judge, declaring a national emergency at the border, ending an app used by illegal immigrants to schedule appointments with federal officials, initiating immigration raids in multiple major cities, and more.

The Tren de Aragua and MS-13 transnational gangs, as well as Mexican drug cartels, were also designated as foreign terrorist organizations last month by Trump.

Trump on Jan. 29 said in a press conference that his administration is now planning to send the “worst criminal aliens” to the Guantanamo Bay naval base and detention facility. He ordered the Pentagon to prepare to hold up to 30,000 criminal aliens, saying some of them can’t be trusted to stay in their home countries once they are sent back.

“Some of them are so bad that we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re gonna send them out to Guantanamo,” Trump said.

His administration is also going to cancel federal funding to nongovernmental organizations involved in encouraging illegal immigrants to come to the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said last week.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.