Border Policy in the US

Venezuela warns of US: “Vulgar kidnapping”

There is no evidence that the Venezuelans deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador have committed any crimes in either country, says Jorge Rodriguez, president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, according to Reuters.

“We will do everything we can to allow our compatriots to return home,” he says in a televised press conference.

Rodriguez says the deportees are being held hostage and he calls the deportation a “vulgar kidnapping” and a “crime against humanity,” writes AFP.

He is now urging all Venezuelans in the US to return home as the country is not safe. 

French Politician Demands Return of the Statue of Liberty

French MEP Raphaël Glucksmann wants one of the world's most iconic statues – the Statue of Liberty – to be returned to France. This is reported by several media outlets.

At a party meeting, the left-wing politician, with a "glimmer in his eye" according to Politico, is said to have demanded that the structure be sent back because the US has now "chosen the side of the tyrants".

A plaque on the statue reads "Give me your tired, your weak" – a message that Glucksmann believes is not compatible with the American mass deportations.

The 46-meter-high statue was designed by Auguste Bartholdi and was a gift from France to celebrate 100 years of American independence. In 1886, it was placed at the mouth of the Hudson River.

– You received it as a gift, but you obviously despise it. It will be excellent here at home instead, said Glucksmann.

The politician also believes that France is strongly criticizing the Trump administration's cuts and says that American scientists who choose to leave the country are welcome in France.

Her son was deported: "Now he is in an abyss"

Mirelis Casique's 24-year-old son is one of those forced to leave the United States in connection with the Trump administration's mass deportation of Venezuelans, she tells the New York Times.

238 people who are alleged to be members of the Venezuelan cartel Tren de Aragua have been deported and taken to a high-security prison in El Salvador.

Mirelis Casique believes that there is no evidence that her son is a member of the gang. The last time she spoke to him, he was being held in a detention center in Texas and had no idea where he would be sent.

“Now he is in an abyss with no one to save him,” she told the NYT.

The deportation comes despite a US federal judge blocking the White House order. Mirelis Casique is one of many Venezuelans who have been hit by panic after Donald Trump’s announcement.