KEY POINTS
  • President Donald Trump announced Venezuela's agreement to accept back migrants living in the U.S. illegally from the U.S., following the release of six American hostages.
  • The Department of Homeland Security revoked programs for Venezuelans and migrants implemented during the Biden Administration, affecting around 530,000.
  • How Trump uses tariffs as a tactic to enforce U.S. immigration policies.

The Trump administration is ending a program giving Venezuelans in the United States temporary protected status, affecting about 350,000 people living in the U.S.

The Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the change Monday.

Protected status for Venezuelans under the program, which started in January 2023, will end in 60 days from Wednesday, the department said.

This comes after President Donald Trump on Saturday said that Venezuela would readmit Venezuelan migrants living in the U.S., “including gang members of Tren de Aragua.”

It also comes on the heels of Venezuela releasing six American detainees late Friday after a Trump administration envoy visited with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

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Trump’s envoy, Richard Grenell, negotiated the release of six of at least nine American detainees held in Venezuela.

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Diosdado Cabello, the Venezuelan Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, detained New Jersey resident David Estrella, 62, last year for alleged involvement in a plot to assassinate Maduro. The Associated Press reported that Cabello was taken captive in September 2024.

Estrella’s former wife told The New York Times that Estrella went to Venezuela to visit close friends. “After such horrible moments that we and David have suffered unjustly, we look forward to welcoming him home and taking care of him until he fully recovers and leaves all this unfortunate incident behind him,” she said.

In an event with Venezuelan judicial authorities, Maduro said, “From a free, sovereign and Bolivarian Venezuela, we say to President Donald Trump that we have taken a first step, and we hope it can be sustained. We want to sustain it! Let it be a new beginning of a historic relationship!”

The U.S. and Venezuela don’t have diplomatic relations, as The Associated Press reported, but Trump appears to be trying to reopen communication between the two countries in order to facilitate his deportation goals.

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