A flight of 146 Venezuelans deported from the US landed in Caracas last Wednesday and was being processed in a La Guaira hotel when earthquakes struck, collapsing the building. Several deportees remain missing.
A Goodbye Party, Four Years Ago
The last time Georgelyss Montes saw her best friend Angelo Mejía Meléndez, it was at a goodbye party before he left for the United States. “You are stupid for leaving us,” she joked.
Last week, she got word he was coming home, unexpectedly, as a deportee. He was one of 146 Venezuelan nationals deported from the US who landed in Caracas last Wednesday.
Mejía Meléndez had been building a life in Miami, working at a pier. He loved the ocean. In a recent voice note to his mother, he told her how much he loved her, and shared that his bosses had bought a new Jet Ski and named it after him. “They told me I was doing a good job, that they loved me. Things are going well,” he told her. “I love you so much. If I were to be born again, I would want you to be my mother.”
His family planned to celebrate his return once he was back home. Instead, they spent days searching hospitals and morgues. They ultimately identified his body by a distinctive pizza tattoo on his arm.
He had died in the earthquakes that struck La Guaira hours after he landed.
“We grew up together,” Montes said. “It’s so hard.”
What Happened in La Guaira
The 146 deportees, including women and children, were being processed in a guarded hotel in La Guaira, Venezuela, when powerful twin earthquakes struck. The building they were in collapsed.
There are conflicting accounts of how many people survived. The Venezuelan agency responsible for transporting the deportees declined to tell NPR how many had survived, stating only through a message that families had been informed of their loved ones’ status, a claim some family members dispute directly.
Among those still missing is Víctor Guanipa Toyo, 32, who lived in Pecos, Texas, where he worked in construction during the day and as a rideshare driver at night. His brother, Alonso Guanipa Toyo, told NPR that the family believes Víctor was being processed in the hotel when it collapsed.
“The government is not doing anything,” Alonso said. “My family is looking for him in the hospitals, in the shelters, in the morgues.”
He said a database search suggested his brother might be in a hospital, but as of this week, Víctor had not been found. Alonso said he believes there may still be people alive under the rubble. “If there’s not a corpse, there’s no dead person,” he said.
Víctor had been detained by immigration authorities on June 12. He and his wife were at a nightclub when they were picked up. Alonso said his brother had no criminal record and was in the United States legally.
“That Happiness Lasted 30 Minutes”
Daniel Núñez had been living in Jacksonville, Florida, for almost five years, working in construction. His mother, Oswadeliz Núñez, says his only legal issues were crossing the border without authorization and a misdemeanor for driving without a license. He was arrested by immigration authorities in May, on his way to work.
About 30 minutes before the earthquake struck, Daniel called his mother to tell her he had landed in Venezuela. It was the last time she heard from him.
“In those four minutes he told me a lot of things, that we were going to live in Venezuela together, that we were going to keep going,” Oswadeliz said. “That happiness lasted 30 minutes.”
Nearly a week later, she has not found him. “I don’t have any more strength,” she said. “At this point, we need help getting their bodies from under the rubble. We need their bodies.”
She rejects the framing that has been used to justify deportations like her son’s. “Venezuelans are not animals,” she said. “They are humans, not criminals. My son paid taxes.”
An Outcome No Policy Anticipated
It is unclear whether the Trump administration will continue deporting Venezuelans following the earthquakes. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment from NPR.
What happened in La Guaira was not the result of any single decision gone wrong. It was the convergence of a deportation flight, a country in the midst of a natural disaster, and a processing facility that happened to be in the path of two powerful earthquakes. No one could have predicted the specific timing. But the underlying reality, that deportation removes a person from whatever safety and stability they had built, regardless of what awaits them on arrival, is not new. It is simply rarely made this visible, this immediate, or this final.
People who had lived in the United States for years, who worked, who paid taxes, who had no criminal record beyond immigration violations or minor offenses, were sent to a country in crisis. Within hours, some of them were dead or missing under rubble.
What Families Should Know
If you have a family member who is facing deportation, or who has been detained and may be deported, there are steps worth understanding now, before a removal takes place.
Country conditions matter legally. If conditions in a person’s home country have deteriorated, whether due to natural disaster, political instability, or violence, that can be relevant to certain forms of relief from removal, including some asylum and humanitarian claims. An attorney can help assess whether current conditions support a legal argument to halt or delay a deportation.
Stay in close contact during detention. Families who maintain regular contact with detained relatives are better positioned to know their location, their scheduled removal date, and to act quickly if something needs to be challenged.
If a family member is deported, document everything you can about their flight, their destination, and their last known communication. In situations involving disaster, displacement, or unrest in the destination country, that information can matter for both humanitarian tracking efforts and any future legal proceedings.
Powers Law Group Is Here
If you have a family member detained by ICE and facing deportation, particularly to a country experiencing instability or crisis, contact Powers Law Group as soon as possible. There may be legal options available to delay or challenge a removal, but time matters.
Phone: 713-589-2085 | Email: [email protected]
Sources
- Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Venezuelans Deported from the U.S. Were Killed Hours Later in Powerful Quakes, NPR, June 30, 2026. https://www.npr.org
- Associated Press, Twin Earthquakes Strike La Guaira, Venezuela, June 2026. https://www.apnews.com
- American Immigration Council, Country Conditions and Asylum Claims: How Changing Circumstances Affect Cases, 2025. https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org
- National Immigration Law Center, Rights of Detained Immigrants Facing Removal, 2025. https://www.nilc.org
- Human Rights Watch, Deportations to Venezuela: Conditions and Risks, 2025. https://www.hrw.org
- TRAC Immigration, Venezuelan Deportation Data, 2026. https://trac.syr.edu
- Powers Law Group, They Had Names: The 17 People Who Have Died in ICE Custody in 2026, April 2026. https://www.rubypowerslaw.com
- Powers Law Group, Kevin González Wanted to Spend His Last Days With His Parents. ICE Had Them in Detention., May 2026. https://www.rubypowerslaw.com
- Powers Law Group, ICE Will No Longer Report Deaths That Happen After Release. Doctors Say That’s How They Hide the Real Numbers., June 2026. https://www.rubypowerslaw.com
- Powers Law Group, The Supreme Court Just Ended TPS for Haitians and Syrians. Here’s What It Means, and What Comes Next., June 2026. https://www.rubypowerslaw.com
