Has Venezuela formally deported or expelled prisoners to the United States recently?

1. The claim under scrutiny — what would count as “Venezuela deporting prisoners to the U.S.”?

A formal deportation or expulsion by Venezuela to the United States would require Venezuelan authorities arranging transport and legal removal of prisoners into U.S. custody or onto U.S. soil under an official procedure; none of the articles provided document such a Venezuelan-initiated transfer to the United States — instead the main documented movements involved U.S. deportations of Venezuelans to El Salvador and later repatriations or swaps that returned people to Venezuela ^{[1] [2] [6]}.

2. What the reporting actually documents — U.S. deportations to El Salvador, prisoner swaps, and detentions in Venezuela

Multiple outlets recount that in March 2025 the U.S. deported hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador — many sent to the CECOT prison after being labeled as linked to the Tren de Aragua gang — and later judicial orders and diplomatic arrangements produced returns or prisoner-exchange movements involving Venezuela, El Salvador and the U.S. ^{[1] [2] [6]}. Separately, U.S. officials and families report that Venezuela detained several people with U.S. ties amid heightened U.S.–Venezuela tensions; the New York Times reports detentions and at least some releases via swaps, but not Caracas deporting prisoners into U.S. custody as a routine policy ^{[3] [7]}.

3. The political narrative — assertions that Venezuela “empties prisons” and the evidence gap

U.S. politicians and some congressional correspondence have warned that the Maduro government is releasing violent prisoners to join migratory flows, and Rep. Troy Nehls and others have pushed DHS on the issue; fact-checking and reporting notes these claims have been circulated widely but lack public, verifiable evidence showing an official Venezuelan program of exporting prisoners to the U.S. border ^{[5] [4]}. The Texas Standard fact-check specifically examined assertions that Venezuela was “sending violent criminals to our southern border” and treated those claims as contested and not substantiated by clear proof in the public record ^[4].

4. Where the confusion comes from — deportations, returns, exchanges, and claims of criminal releases

The record is complex: the U.S. deported many Venezuelans to El Salvador under controversial legal bases (including use of the Alien Enemies Act), some of those people later returned to Venezuela under prisoner-exchange deals, and the U.S. separately negotiated releases of Americans held in Venezuela ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Those movements — two-way and involving third countries — can be conflated in political messaging into a claim that Venezuela is “sending prisoners to the U.S.,” but the sources supplied do not document an official Venezuelan practice of deporting prisoners to the United States itself ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

5. Bottom line, limits of available reporting, and alternative explanations

Based on the provided reporting, the direct answer is: no — there is no substantiated evidence in these sources that Venezuela has formally deported or expelled prisoners to the United States recently; instead coverage shows U.S.-initiated deportations to El Salvador, Venezuelan detentions of individuals with U.S. ties, and later diplomatic swaps that moved people between Venezuela, El Salvador and the U.S. ^{[1] [2] [3]}. That said, political claims that Caracas is releasing criminals into migration flows have circulated and prompted congressional vigilance, but those claims remain contested and not conclusively proven in the cited fact-checking and reporting ^{[4] [5]}. This assessment is limited to the supplied sources; if additional primary government documents or direct Venezuelan transfer records exist, they were not present among the materials provided.