Stay or go? Venezuelan immigrants react to Maduro's capture | The Excerpt
- - Stay or go? Venezuelan immigrants react to Maduro's capture | The Excerpt
Dana Taylor, USA TODAYJanuary 12, 2026 at 5:43 AM
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On the Monday, January 12, 2026, episode of The Excerpt podcast: Following the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, we looked at the growing anxiety within Venezuelan immigrant communities in the US. USA TODAY National News Reporter Lauren Villagran joins USA TODAY’s The Excerpt to discuss how Maduro's capture might impact the residency status of immigrants and asylum seekers.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Dana Taylor:
On January 3rd, 2026, US Forest has captured Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and flew him to New York to face drug charges. Well, his arrest has led to questions regarding who will control Venezuela's vast oil reserves. Venezuelan immigrants are now left wondering how long they'll be allowed to remain in the US.
Hello and welcome to USA TODAY's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Monday, January 12th, 2026. Joining me now to discuss the fall of Maduro and how it's playing out in Venezuelan immigrant communities in America is USA TODAY National News Reporter, Lauren Villagran. So good to speak to you, Lauren.
Lauren Villagran:
Thanks for having me, Dana.
Dana Taylor:
Lauren, you wrote that sobering realities are setting in. Why does the arrest of Maduro put the legal status of some Venezuelan immigrants in the US in limbo and how many immigrants are we talking about here?
Lauren Villagran:
Yeah, there's not a perfect number because there is some overlap in the numbers in terms of what people have applied for, but the fact of the matter is that more than 600,000 Venezuelan immigrants lost their temporary protected status after the Trump administration revoked it last year. And the administration has taken a number of other steps, Dana, to curtail the legal pathways that Venezuelans had in the United States. That includes the cancellation of a humanitarian parole program called the CHNV Program. And they're also sort of squeezing asylum as well, looking to have cases dismissed or thrown out before a judge can rule on the merits.
Dana Taylor:
Deporting immigrants to Venezuela became easier for the US after President Donald Trump took office in 2025. What was the process like in previous years and what changed with the new Trump administration?
Lauren Villagran:
So Venezuela was one of the nations that the US considered recalcitrant, meaning that they frequently would not receive a deportation flight. And that was a huge issue in the Biden administration, although there were at one point negotiations that did allow for some deportation flights, but those had stopped in January of 2025. The Trump administration was able to negotiate a new order in which Venezuela began accepting deportation flights regularly. At one point, it was every Wednesday and Friday.
But Dana, the fact remains that the Trump administration has wanted to deport millions of immigrants in this country, and Venezuelans have in some cases been the poster face of that deportation effort. But even with dozens of deportation flights that occurred last year, the Trump administration deported roughly 14,000 Venezuelans to Venezuela in 2025. Now, that's just a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the United States now living without legal protections.
Dana Taylor:
When were the last deportation flights from the US to Venezuela and where does that leave Venezuelan immigrants in the US?
Lauren Villagran:
So the last known deportation flight from the United States to Venezuela occurred on December 10th. US immigration and customs enforcement tells me flights have not paused." But one organization that closely tracks ICE deportation, "Flights tells USA TODAY that there have been no additional deportation flights since that date.
Dana Taylor:
President Trump has made no secret about US interest in Venezuela's oil reserves. Is this operation also part of the president's immigration agenda? What has the administration said about deportations?
Lauren Villagran:
Yeah. So it's early days still, and it's unclear whether the fact that deportation flights have not been landing regularly in the past week or so is an indication of what's to come. Certainly Maduro's ouster is fresh still. We know that the administration has wanted to create conditions in which Venezuelans could return to their home country, but Venezuelans I've spoken with in the diaspora and the United States, as hopeful as some maybe do believe that conditions on the ground in these early days are still very complicated. You have a regime in place that is essentially the same one that was built up around Maduro. You have seen repression in the streets and the sort of celebrations and celebratory mood that you saw in Venezuelan communities in the United States has not materialized in Venezuela given the repression.
Dana Taylor:
You spoke with 53-year-old Neyorka Melendez who fled Venezuela in 2015, was granted asylum in the US. Tell me about the work she and her husband have been doing for former immigrants from Venezuela.
Lauren Villagran:
Neyorka and her husband spoke with our colleague, Eduardo Cuevas, about their work aiding Venezuelan immigrants who have arrived in New York. They themselves fled Caracas in 2015 early in the Maduro regime. She was a vocal critic of that government and they sought and won asylum in the United States. Now, she described it as a dream that one day she would be able to return to Venezuela if only to visit, but doesn't believe the conditions are right for that now for her or any Venezuelans.
Dana Taylor:
I was going to ask how they feel about Delcy Rodriguez, Venezuela's interim president, and if this was the change they were hoping for.
Lauren Villagran:
Look, the Venezuelans I've spoken to of all political stripes certainly want to see their country return to democracy. There are some who believe that leaving the regime in place was the right step for the Trump administration to maintain some semblance of stability, both economic and political in the country at this delicate moment. There are others that are aghast that the opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado would be sidelined as she was in the wake of this operation. But again, it's still early days elections have not been called. If they were to be called, it's unclear whether they would be fair. We know this regime outside observers have said lost the last election in Venezuela, but essentially retained power under fraud. So it's a developing situation, one that Venezuelans in the United States, regardless of their political stance, are happy to see Maduro ousted, but that doesn't mean that conditions on the ground in Venezuela are ready or ripe for democracy.
Dana Taylor:
Well, I know you spoke with the president of the local Venezuelan American Republican Club in Doral, Florida. Have you been able to get a sense of how the oust of Maduro is playing out in Venezuelan communities here?
Lauren Villagran:
Oh, absolutely. In South Florida, particularly in this very Republican community of Doral Florida, the president of the local club, Gustavo Garragory, told me that people are elated. They are grateful to President Trump as well as Secretary Marco Rubio for the successful operation in Venezuela to remove Maduro. But even he said that he is concerned about the vulnerable position that many members of his community are going to be left in with the administration revoking many of the pathways that had allowed them to immigrate under the Biden administration. He told me that there are families who are afraid to take their kids for an ice cream cone on the weekends. They're afraid to go out for pizza. So it's a bittersweet moment in which folks are celebrating Maduro's ouster, but are truly concerned about their ability to live, work, and remain in the United States.
Dana Taylor:
As you said, it's early days, but are there some immigrants who now want to return to Venezuela?
Lauren Villagran:
Dana, there surely must be, but the folks that I talk to still believed that the situation is far too tense in Venezuela right now. You have seen already immediately in the wake of Maduro's ouster, key members of the Maduro regime come out to speak to cameras saying the people in the streets know what to do. That was from Diosdado Cabello, who is one of the key figures in the regime. There are collectivos in the street. Those are the armed militias who essentially keep order and enforce the government's repression of opposition. I think that even those like New York in New York who dream of being able to one day go back to a country that she loves, that many in the Venezuela and diaspora love dearly, they just don't feel like it's safe enough yet.
Dana Taylor:
And then for those who wish to stay in the US, is there a path forward for them?
Lauren Villagran:
Outside of a marriage-based green card, right now, no. The key protections have largely been erased. Now, asylum applications are reviewed on a case by case basis. So it really is going to depend on how attorneys for US immigration and customs enforcement, what route they decide to take for each individual case and how immigration judges respond, but we know the administration is asking immigration judges to dismiss cases or preemptively cancel them before they can hear the merits of whether someone deserves asylum or not. So it certainly is a moment for a very uphill battle. We've seen the Homeland Security Assistant Secretary, Tricia McLaughlin come out and say on Fox News that Venezuelans should be ready to return, that the conditions in the country are quickly going to improve. So I think we'll be watching in the coming days and weeks to see if the administration changes its policies vis-a-vis the Venezuelan diaspora.
Gustavo Garragory, again, the Republican Venezuelan American in South Florida is hopeful that the administration might recognize the difficulties and provide a new path for his countrymen and women.
Dana Taylor:
Lauren Villagran is a National News Reporter for USA TODAY. It's always good to have you on the excerpt, Lauren. Thank you.
Lauren Villagran:
Thank you, Dana. I appreciate it.
Dana Taylor:
Thanks to our senior producer, Kaely Monahan, for her production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to [email protected]. Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. I'll be back tomorrow morning with another episode of USA TODAY's The Excerpt.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Venezuelan immigrants are in limbo following fall of Maduro | The Excerpt
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