Venezuela will face “severe, and escalating sanctions” if it refuses to accept its citizens who have been deported from the United States, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday.
The tough warning comes as the Trump administration seeks to ramp up deportations of Venezuelans living illegally in the U.S. and to need a temporary residency program for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, which could pave the way for them to lose their legal status.
Many of those with protected status migrated to the U.S. amid Venezuela’s economic collapse under the authoritarian rule of President Nicolas Maduro.
“Venezuela is obligated to accept its repatriated citizens from the U.S. This is not an issue for debate or negotiation,” Rubio wrote on X. “Nor does it merit any reward. Unless the Maduro regime accepts a consistent flow of deportation flights, without further excuses or delays, the U.S. will impose new, severe, and escalating sanctions.”
The threat came days after Richard Grenell, President Donald Trump’s special envoy tasked with securing the release of six U.S. citizens imprisoned in Venezuela, said the Maduro government had agreed to accept repatriation flights.
Maduro agreed to accept his citizens after initially refusing to do so.
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In February, Trump ended a permit to export oil to allow Chevron to export oil from Venezuela to the U.S. In doing so, Trump noted that Maduro’s government had not met benchmarks to promote free and fair elections.
The Trump administration is fighting to deport Venezuelan gang members back to their country. Over the weekend, 238 Venezuelan gang members were flown to a high-security prison in El Salvador despite a federal judge’s order temporarily blocking the deportations.
During an interview on Fox News Radio, Rubio thanked El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for accepting the migrants.
“Venezuela should be taking them, but they refuse to take them. And so, we are fortunate to have a friend like President Bukele who, as part of my meeting with him said we will take them for a fraction of what it costs you guys to house them in your own prison system,” he said.
“I think it was a very helpful thing that El Salvador did for us and President Bukele, and we’re grateful to him for it. And frankly, I feel like we should continue to do it,” he added.