Snapshot · The MeidasTouch Podcast
The ICE deportation flight from Miami to Simón Bolívar Airport carried 146 people, including 19 women and 7 children, landing hours before the earthquake.
Where this was said
At 8:57 · chapter starts 5:10
One of the episode's most damning segments details the deportation flight that ICE ran from Miami to Venezuela on the very morning of the June 24 earthquake. Around 148 people — stripped of their Temporary Protected Status — were flown to Simón Bolívar International Airport and then bused to Hotel Santuario in La Guaira, a coastal city north of Caracas that sat near the earthquake's epicenter [1] — Ben Meiselas "ICE flew 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and 7 children, from Miami to Simón Bolívar Airport on the morning of June 24. They were bused…" 05:10 . The hotel's name — 'sanctuary' in Spanish — would prove bitterly ironic. When the twin quakes struck, the hotel collapsed. Approximately 140 of those deported individuals are now missing and presumed dead. Meiselas notes that even before this specific flight, the Trump administration had been ramping up deportations of Venezuelans broadly, and the Supreme Court's recent ruling gutting Temporary Protected Status means more deportations are imminent — back into a disaster zone. The segment paints a picture of a policy machine that continued grinding forward without any consideration of the catastrophic conditions on the ground.
Approximately 140 people deported by ICE were placed in Hotel Santuario near the epicenter; the hotel collapsed during the earthquake, likely killing them.
ICE flew 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and 7 children, from Miami to Simón Bolívar Airport on the morning of June 24. They were bused to Hotel Santuario in La Guaira. Hours later, the earthquake struck and the hotel collapsed, leaving approximately 140 people unaccounted for and likely dead.
The US Supreme Court ruled that Temporary Protected Status can be revoked at the president's discretion, enabling more Venezuelan deportations.
The US Supreme Court ruled that Temporary Protected Status effectively does not exist if the president doesn't want it to. That means more Venezuelans currently in the US are now eligible for deportation — back to a country in the middle of a catastrophic earthquake crisis with a regime blocking aid.
María Corina Machado flew to Curaçao to try to reach Venezuela after the earthquakes. The Trump administration refused to acknowledge her diplomatic status, forcing her to return to the US. She has no Venezuelan passport, and Trump's State Department won't provide credentials — all while Trump dismisses her efforts as a 'publicity stunt.'
Trump refused to grant María Corina Machado diplomatic credentials, blocking her from traveling to Venezuela via Curaçao to be with earthquake victims.
MeidasTouch's Katie Fang broke down the timeline: the ICE flight from Miami, the transfer to Hotel Santuario in La Guaira, and the devastating earthquake that followed. The hotel's name — 'sanctuary' in Spanish — made the tragedy even more bitter. Fang drew a direct line from Trump's deportation policy to the deaths.
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