CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela announced it reached an agreement on Saturday with the United States to resume repatriation flights of migrants, according to a statement from the country’s Parliament President Jorge Rodriguez.
Rodriguez said the flights would start on Sunday.
“Migrating isn’t a crime, and we won’t rest until everyone who wants to return is back and we rescue our kidnapped brothers in El Salvador,” the statement said.
The move comes amid a diplomatic spat between the United States and Venezuela over the recent deportation flights of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador.
The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
As part of President Donald Trump’s rapid U.S. deportation program, hundreds of Venezuelan migrants were sent to a prison in El Salvador.
The families and lawyers have been seeking news about relatives and clients whom they could no longer reach, and demanding their return to Venezuela.
The United States said the deportees sent to El Salvador were members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, a claim that Venezuela’s interior minister denied.
The Trump administration now faces a March 25 deadline to respond to a judicial request for more details on the deportations to El Salvador, as Washington-based U.S. District Judge James Boasberg considers whether officials violated his order temporarily blocking the expulsions.
(Reporting by Mayela Armas; Writing by Alexander Villegas; editing by Diane Craft)
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