Deported Venezuelan Migrants Missing After Hotel Collapse During Earthquake
More than 100 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States are missing and feared dead after the hotel where they were being held collapsed during one of the deadliest earthquakes to strike South America in recent memory. The deportees, who arrived in Venezuela on a chartered flight just hours before two massive quakes struck the coastal city of La Guaira, are now among the most tragic casualties of a disaster that has killed at least 1,700 people.
The chartered ICE flight carrying 146 people, including 19 women and 7 children, landed at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Caracas at 10:22 a.m. local time on Wednesday, according to Venezuelan authorities and ICE Flight Monitor, a tracking initiative by Human Rights First. The passengers were transported to Hotel Santuario in La Guaira, a coastal city north of the capital. Within hours, two earthquakes measuring magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 struck within seconds of each other, toppling buildings and trapping thousands under rubble.
Hotel Collapse Traps Dozens of Deportees
Hotel Santuario partially collapsed as the quakes roared through La Guaira, trapping deportees who had just been returned to their homeland after years in the United States. Some survived the initial collapse, but relatives say authorities have provided little information about who is alive, hospitalized, or dead. Luis Armando Dasilva told CNN his sister, Amanda Donizete, who was deported from Georgia, has not been heard from since Wednesday.
“They are not giving us answers about where she is. If she is at a hospital or at the morgue. We have already checked all of that and we have not found her,” Dasilva said. “She was very happy and wanted to see her family.”
Yulis Salcedo told Reuters she had decorated her home with blue, yellow and red balloons in Venezuela’s national colors to welcome her 21-year-old son Anderson, who was on the Wednesday morning flight from Miami. He called her at 5 p.m. to say he loved her. By morning, he was fighting for his life in a hospital bed with both legs amputated.
US Deportation Policy Under Scrutiny
The disaster has intensified scrutiny over the United States’ accelerating deportation of Venezuelan migrants. According to ICE Flight Monitor, the US deported 1,746 Venezuelan nationals in May alone. In October 2025, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to terminate Temporary Protected Status for approximately 300,000 Venezuelan migrants, prompting a dramatic surge in removal flights.
The US has since deployed search and rescue teams to Venezuela and committed more than $300 million to relief efforts, a rare instance of American personnel operating inside the crisis-stricken country. José Gregorio Rincón Ávila, grandfather of a missing deportee, made an emotional plea outside the rubble pile.
“Please, those of you who are here, help us, help us,” he told CNN. “We have been waiting many days. We already know those bodies have been there for several days since Wednesday, but at least let us take our loved ones home. We want our family members — whatever condition they are in — we just want to be able to bury them.”
A Nation Already in Crisis Confronts Its Deadliest Disaster
The twin earthquakes, striking within seconds of each other, caused catastrophic damage across La Guaira and surrounding areas. Buildings that had withstood decades of tropical weather collapsed in seconds. Entire neighborhoods were flattened. The confirmed death toll has climbed to at least 1,700, with thousands more still missing beneath the rubble of collapsed structures throughout the region.
The Hotel Santuario tragedy has compounded the catastrophe, adding a political dimension to an already devastating humanitarian crisis. As rescue workers continue to comb through the wreckage five days after the disaster, families of the deportees say they are being left to grieve without answers.
