Chapter 1: What led to the capture of Nicolás Maduro and its implications?
On January 3rd, 2026, U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and flew him to New York to face drug charges. While his arrest has led to questions regarding who will control Venezuela's vast oil reserves, Venezuelan immigrants are now left wondering how long they will be allowed to remain in the U.S. Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor.
Today is Monday, January 12th, 2026.
Chapter 2: How does Maduro's arrest affect Venezuelan immigrants' legal status in the U.S.?
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.
Thanks for having me, Dana.
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 U.S. in limbo?
Chapter 3: What changes occurred in U.S. immigration policy under the Trump administration?
And how many immigrants are we talking about here?
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, 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.
Deporting immigrants to Venezuela became easier for the U.S.
Chapter 4: When did the last deportation flights to Venezuela occur?
after President Donald Trump took office in 2025. What was the process like in previous years and what changed with the new Trump administration?
So, you know, Venezuela was one of the nations that the U.S. 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.
When were the last deportation flights from the U.S. to Venezuela and where does that leave Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S. ?
So the last known deportation flight from the United States to Venezuela occurred on December 10th. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement tells me, quote, 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.
President Trump has made no secret about U.S. interest in Venezuela's oil reserves. Is this operation also part of the president's immigration agenda? What has the administration said about deportations?
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Chapter 5: How are Venezuelan communities reacting to Maduro's ouster?
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 in the United States, as hopeful as some may be, 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.
You spoke with 53-year-old Niurka Melendez, who fled Venezuela in 2015, was granted asylum in the U.S. Tell me about the work she and her husband have been doing for former immigrants from Venezuela.
Chapter 6: What challenges do Venezuelan immigrants face in the U.S. post-Maduro?
New Yorka 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.
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.
Chapter 7: Is there a potential path forward for Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S.?
I was going to ask, you know, how they feel about Delcy Rodriguez, Venezuela's interim president, and if this was the change they were hoping for.
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.
Lauren, 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?
Oh, absolutely. In South Florida, particularly in this very Republican community of Doral, Florida, the president of the local club, Gustavo Garagorri, 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 families folks are celebrating maduro's ouster but are truly concerned about their ability to live work and remain in the united states as you said it's early days but are there some immigrants who now want to return to venezuela
You know, Dana, there surely must be, but the folks that I talked to still believed that the situation is far too tense in Venezuela right now. You know, 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, you know, the people in the streets know what to do. That was from Diosdado Cabello,
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