A plane carrying 177 Venezuelan migrants, who were held in Guantanamo Bay after being deported from the US, arrived in Venezuela on Thursday, nearly emptying the naval base of the migrants sent there after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The migrants were initially flown to Honduras for transfer to Venezuela, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Hundreds of migrants were sent to Guantanamo Bay as part of Trump’s sweeping crackdown on migration, but they have since been mostly flown elsewhere after questions were raised over the legality of such an initiative. The base on Cuba is notorious for holding prisoners of the US-led “war on terror.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has alleged that Venezuelan migrants sent to Guantanamo Bay have ties to the Tren de Aragua gang, a criminal network that started in a Venezuelan prison.
The Venezuelan government said in a statement that it had requested the repatriation of Venezuelan nationals who were “unjustly taken to the Guantanamo naval base.”
President Nicholas Maduro said the group that arrived Thursday “are not criminals, they are not bad people, they were people who emigrated as a result of the [US] sanctions… in Venezuela we welcome them as a productive force, with a loving embrace.”
Senior Trump officials have said that Guantanamo Bay is reserved for the “worst of the worst,” but new court filings reveal that not all those who are being sent to the facility are considered to pose a “high threat.”
Of the deportees, 126 people had criminal charges or convictions – including 80 allegedly affiliated with Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua – a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said. The spokesperson added that 51 had no criminal record.
On Wednesday a group of Venezuelans shielded from deportation under a form of humanitarian relief filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its decision to revoke those protections.
Earlier this month, the DHS ended what’s known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in a string of moves to strip temporary protections for certain migrants.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem decided not to grant an extension of TPS, reversing a decision made by Biden’s DHS and leaving some 600,000 people in limbo.
Protections for approximately 350,000 Venezuelans are set to expire in April, opening them up for deportation. Around 250,000 Venezuelans are expected to lose them in September.
