The Department of Homeland Security pushed back Wednesday against claims from Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) that immigration officials attempted to deport families with children to Venezuela as the country reels from last week’s devastating earthquakes.
Castro said families held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas were awakened overnight and transferred to Arizona for what they believed was a deportation flight to Venezuela before ultimately being returned to the detention facility.
“They were woken up in the middle of the night and sent to Arizona on their way to Venezuela,” Castro wrote. “The families were ultimately sent back to Dilley but worry that they could be deported at any time.”
He called it “unthinkable to send children and families, who have committed no crimes, into a country plunged into chaos by natural disaster.”
DHS disputed the account.
“This is FALSE,” the agency said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
DHS said a deportation flight safely arrived in Venezuela on June 24 and that everyone aboard was returned before the earthquakes struck.
“On June 24, a deportation flight safely reached Venezuela and all illegal aliens on board were returned home,” the agency said. “When an individual is no longer in ICE custody, ICE is no longer responsible for them. No additional deportation flights were scheduled for that day.”
The 7.2 magnitude and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes killed over 2,000 people and leveled buildings across the country on...
The Department of Homeland Security pushed back Wednesday against claims from Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) that immigration officials attempted to deport families with children to Venezuela as the co...