'Heartbreaking': Venezuelans in U.S. blast Trump announcement that Maduro will take back deportees

Source: Miami Herald

‘Heartbreaking’: Venezuelans in U.S. blast Trump announcement that Maduro will take back deportees

Verónica Egui Brito, Milena Malaver
Sat, February 1, 2025 at 6:21 PM EST·6 min read

Venezuelans in South Florida and across the country expressed outrage, fear and uncertainty Saturday after President Donald Trump announced Venezuela will take back its nationals deported from the United States.

“It’s heartbreaking that after seven years of hard work, studying for my degree, I’m still being targeted,” said Grecia Pacheco, 27, who moved to the U.S. from Venezuela in 2017 and lives in North Miami. “I’d rather seek refuge in another country than go back to Venezuela.”

Trump said Saturday on the social media site Truth Social that the Nicolás Maduro regime has agreed to accept the return of undocumented Venezuelan immigrants, including members of the infamous Tren de Aragua criminal gang, sparking heightened fears about the safety and future of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in the U.S. There are as many as a million Venezuelans in the U.S. who fled the leftist regime in Caracas.

Pacheco said the Trump administration is “playing with the lives of fellow Venezuelans who fled.” Pacheco has been a beneficiary since 2021 of the federal policy known as Temporary Protected Status, which shields over half a million Venezuelans from deportation.

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Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/news/heartbreaking-venezuelans-u-blast-trump-232112455.html