President Donald Trump’s first weeks in office showed the world an unnerving split screen: harsh treatment of Venezuelan Americans and a warm embrace of Venezuela’s brutal dictator, Nicolás Maduro.

They deserved to be abandoned because American goodwill to them were turned into drugs dealing, crime and gangs of all sorts. 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem quickly reversed the Biden administration’s most recent extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelan immigrants and shuttered a parole program that allowed some Venezuelans to apply from outside the country and enter legally.

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Now, some 600,000 Venezuelans face deportation.

Justifications for this shift range from fear-mongering to falsehoods. Noem has called some Venezuelans who have made their way here “dirtbags” and “the worst of the worst.” Her official order revoking TPS absurdly cites “notable improvements in… the economy, public health, and crime” in Venezuela.

That’s bewildering, given more than half of Venezuelans live in extreme poverty, residents cannot access basic lifesaving medicine, and back in 2020, Maduro himself was indicted by the U.S. for his alleged involvement in narco-trafficking.

Sadly, we saw this coming. Trump’s campaign tarred all immigrants in the U.S. as criminals.

Repeatedly, he drew no distinction between criminal organizations like Tren de Aragua and the vast majority of Venezuelans who, for years, lived alongside us as friends and neighbors.

Still, after selecting Cuban-American Republican Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state, a fellow Floridian and long-standing Maduro opponent, few expected Trump to mend fences with the regime.

Surely, Trump wouldn’t forgive and forget the bloody crackdown following Venezuela’s July 2024 presidential election. Despite clear evidence that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez received a decisive majority of votes, Maduro claimed victory and clung to power by force.

Yet, I warned last year that Trump might cut a corrupt bargain with Maduro. The formula was clear: launder the dictator’s reputation through quasi-recognition in exchange for facilitating indiscriminate deportation of Venezuelans. Meanwhile, oil profits keep flowing to the regime and Trump’s fossil fuel donors.

When I learned Special Envoy Ric Grenell was secretly negotiating with Maduro’s inner circle, I expected Florida Republicans to join me in condemning this capitulation and standing firmly by Venezuela’s opposition leaders.

Bizarrely, my congressional Republicans counterparts insisted Trump’s deportation demands would only impact criminals and that Grenell would make “no concessions.” If only.

Instead, the worst-case scenario for Venezuelans — in the country and the diaspora — is now unfolding.

The end of protected status looms for Venezuelans, who, if returned to their homeland, may face persecution from the Maduro dictatorship. Trump reinforced Maduro’s position by giving him a grinning handshake photo with an American official.

Worse, Venezuela’s democratic leaders are sidelined, and their supporters in the U.S. are silenced by deportation threats.

And quietly, the Trump administration extended an OFAC license that allows Chevron to pump oil and fund the regime’s crimes. This license, initiated by the Biden administration, was so clearly detrimental that I sponsored legislation to stop it. Even Rubio criticized the licenses during his confirmation hearing. Ironically, Trump’s threatened Canadian oil tariffs would give Venezuelan crude a price advantage.

Most Venezuelan expats would not return voluntarily unless Maduro stepped down, and millions more say they’ll flee if he retains power. And with Trump shuttering USAID programs that bolster civil society and humanitarian needs for Venezuelans, the next wave of refugees may well be gathering.

Trump’s followers argue this puts “America first.” But a deal with Maduro puts both Americans and Venezuelans last — and the world’s autocrats and oil barons first.

It will not reduce gas prices because Venezuela’s oil sector is gutted by corrupt mismanagement. It will not mitigate migration because regional autocrats will learn that shipping refugees to our border and offering to take them back leads to lavish U.S. concessions.

Propping up Maduro with oil money, legitimizing his brutal reign and subjecting law-abiding Venezuelans to his sadistic repression will aggravate our problems.

The only purpose a deal with Maduro serves — at the cost of our credibility as champions of democracy — is the collective punishment of Venezuelans who had legal status just days ago.

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