Venezuela to continue accepting deported migrants despite Trump’s airspace closure assertion

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — U.S.-operated flights returning deported migrants to Venezuela will continue despite President Donald Trump’s assertion that the airspace of the South American country should be considered closed.

The government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Tuesday announced that the twice weekly flights will go on following a request from the Trump administration. That reverses a Venezuelan government Saturday announcement indicating that U.S. immigration authorities had unilaterally suspended the flights.

An overflight and landing application submitted Monday by U.S.-based Eastern Airlines requests permission for an arrival Wednesday. The application was made public Tuesday by Venezuela’s foreign affairs minister.

Venezuelans have been steadily deported to their home country this year after Maduro, under pressure from the White House, did away with his long-standing policy of not accepting deportees from the U.S.

Immigrants now arrive regularly at the airport outside the capital, Caracas, on flights operated by a U.S. government contractor or Venezuela’s state-owned airline. The flights have continued despite U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean and off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast.

The Trump administration says the strikes are aimed at drug cartels, some of which it claims are controlled by Maduro. Trump also is weighing whether to carry out strikes on the Venezuelan mainland.

More than 13,000 migrants have been deported to Venezuela this year on dozens of chartered flights, the latest of which arrived Friday.