For Hiowanka Avila Rivas, the torture her brother experienced at the hands of Venezuelan authorities is proof of the danger that Venezuelans face if deported from the United States.
“My brother had to record a video — a forced video — and once the video was done, the torture at the Helicoide began. They pulled out his toenails. He was subjected to electric shocks, beaten, ” said Avila in Spanish, speaking over the phone from Caracas, Venezuela, where she lives and continues to advocate for his release, and of those whom she asserts have been unfairly imprisoned.
“They tied him up, hung him up, put a bag over his face, and sprayed insecticide into it,” she added about Henryberth Rivas’ torture.
In the U.S., Venezuelan migrants have become prime targets of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Despite multiple court orders attempting to halt removals, deportation efforts continue — eroding their protections and raising fears of being sent back to Venezuela or even El Salvador.
“My brother didn’t belong to any political party.” His crime, Avila said, was to attend the 2017 protests and express what Venezuelans felt at the time, “disagreement with the hunger in the country, the food shortages, and the poor quality of life.”
Avila’s testimony illustrates the harsh reality political prisoners face in the country, with reports from the United Nations’ Human Rights Office describing conditions in Venezuela’s prisons as “beyond monstrous,” the same year Henryberth Rivas was detained.
He was apprehended by the regime’s torturous intelligence forces on Aug. 5, 2018. Avila said, before his arrest, he was “tied to the patrol car and dragged for three blocks, ” and tortured for 48 days before being “wrongfully” charged with magnicide. Avila’s family hasn’t been the same, she explains.
Henryberth’s story illustrates the dangers Venezuelans face if deported to a country where dissent often leads to prison, torture, or even death. Human Rights Watch reports that since 2014, “more than 15,800 people have been subjected to politically motivated arrests,” and more than 270 political prisoners remain behind bars.
Out of 28 Venezuelans living in the U.S. under various immigration statuses surveyed for this project, all participants stated they would not feel safe returning to Venezuela as long as Nicolas Maduro remains president.
This sentiment of fear extends beyond individual testimony. Countless NGOs, journalists, and scholars were approached to contribute to this project, but none of the NGOs responded, and many journalists declined to participate. Their reluctance stemmed from a very real fear of political retribution by Maduro’s regime, highlighting the pervasive climate of censorship and persecution in Venezuela.
In addition to the political repression, Venezuela is in the grip of a profound humanitarian crisis. According to Human Rights Watch, 19 million people — more than half the population — are in desperate need of assistance, unable to access adequate healthcare, nutrition, or basic services.
In this context, the peril of returning to Venezuela is not just about political oppression but about survival itself.
According to the Migration Policy Institute’s latest statistics, as of 2023, approximately 770,000 Venezuelan immigrants lived in the U.S., making up just under 2% of the country’s 47.8 million immigrants. The same report highlights that nearly half a million Venezuelans are undocumented and vulnerable to deportation, with another 600,000 relying on Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
Colleen Putzel, Associate Policy Analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, began by explaining MPI’s view on TPS and Humanitarian Parole statuses, which the organization calls “liminal statuses” because these individuals are protected from deportation unless they commit a crime.
Putzel stressed, “They’re not unauthorized, but they also don’t have permanent status.”
In February, the Trump administration revoked TPS for at least 350,000 Venezuelan nationals. However, Federal Judge Edward Chen of the Northern District of California blocked this move, ruling that the “action threatens to inflict irreparable harm on hundreds of thousands of persons, … cost the United States billions in economic activity, and injure public health and safety in communities throughout the U.S.”
MPI’s report on Venezuelan immigrants shows that 75% of Venezuelans ages 16 and older were in the civilian labor force in 2023, with many working in production, transportation, and material-moving roles — more than other immigrant groups.
Putzel addressed Judge Chen’s ruling to block the early termination of TPS for Venezuelans who applied in 2021 and 2023 under the Biden administration. “The contributions of these migrants to the U.S. workforce were crucial, especially as we emerged from the pandemic,” she noted. “The U.S. recovered quickly after COVID-19, largely due to the influx of people filling jobs.”
She also pointed out broader issues with the U.S. immigration system, especially under the Trump administration, which challenged both unauthorized migration and legal pathways to entry.
“Under Biden, we saw the creation of more pathways, but simply calling them ‘pathways’ doesn’t capture the full picture. While there was an emphasis on orderly entry, the system lacked focus on what happens once people arrive,” she explained.
Putzel argued that the Trump administration’s broader goal was to execute a “mass deportation campaign” targeting over 1 million people per year. By ending the statuses of certain groups, the administration would increase the unauthorized population and gather more data on them, such as names, addresses, and biometric information.
In this sense, her analysis exemplifies how Venezuelans became the latest victims of a broken immigration system. Under the Trump administration, the legal landscape has become more hostile, as the government invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify expedited deportations of Venezuelan migrants accused of gang ties, specifically connections to the Tren de Aragua criminal network.
For Venezuelan’s there is no safe haven; remaining in Trump’s America may now also mean prison, torture, and death.
Beakers Carreyo (28), also from Caracas, Venezuela, entered the U.S. in 2023 under Biden’s CHNV Humanitarian Parole Program. Humanitarian parole is a temporary immigration status granted by the U.S. government to individuals facing urgent humanitarian circumstances. It allows recipients to live and work in the U.S. legally for a limited period, typically one to two years. Under the Biden administration, the CHNV program extended this relief to nationals fleeing from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
Before arriving in the U.S., he spent a year in Colombia but explained, “Unfortunately, things didn’t go well for me … I ended up returning to Venezuela.”
Born with Spina Bifida, a birth defect caused by the improper formation of the spine and spinal cord, Carreyo faced numerous challenges. Between 2021 and 2023, he underwent four surgeries, one of which resulted in a severe infection that almost cost him his life.
Reflecting on his time in Venezuela, he said, “You’d go to a hospital, and there weren’t even gloves for them to treat you.” The lack of basic medical resources left him vulnerable and made it nearly impossible to manage his condition effectively.
His journey to the U.S. was not just about escaping the physical dangers of a failing healthcare system, but about finding a place where he could receive the care he desperately needed.
Carreyo is grateful for the opportunities to work and receive proper care, something that was impossible in Venezuela. However, his legal status now stands at the heart of a national immigration battle.
As one of over half a million migrants admitted through the CHNV Humanitarian Parole program, his future hangs in the balance after the Trump administration moved to dismantle the initiative — a move the Supreme Court allowed to proceed on May 30, effectively ending the program while legal challenges continue.
As the legal ground beneath Venezuelan migrants continues to shift, hundreds of thousands are now vulnerable to deportation. With no guarantee of protection in the U.S. and no possibility of returning to a country plagued by repression and collapse, the Venezuelan migrant community in the U.S. awaits its fate.
Thanks for this thoughtful article. A serious problem not considered here is the history of U.S. foreign policy toward Venezuela which has been a major factor in the intentional destabilization of the nation since the government of Ceasar Chavez and continues under Maduro. If this is not explained, the ongoing problem will not be understood by many Americans who have no access to the truth of U.S. global policies that have not changed since the period of enslavement.