KEY POINTS
- Largest US naval deployment in Caribbean in decades sparks fears of direct action.
- US Justice Department presses Supreme Court to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 300,000 Venezuelans.
- Millions have fled Venezuela amid political repression and economic collapse.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened Venezuela with “incalculable” consequences if it refused to take back migrants he claimed had been “forced into” the United States, escalating tensions with Caracas.
“We want Venezuela to immediately accept all of the prisoners, and people from mental institutions… forced into the United States of America,” Trump said, quoted by AFP. “Thousands of people have been badly hurt, and even killed, by these ‘monsters’.”
“Get them the hell out of our country, right now, or the price you pay will be incalculable!,” the US President said.
The warning came a day after Venezuela accused Washington of waging an “undeclared war” in the Caribbean, citing recent US military strikes that have killed more than a dozen alleged drug traffickers at sea. Caracas called for a United Nations investigation into the operations.
The United States has also deployed warships off Venezuela’s coast and stationed F-35 fighter jets in Puerto Rico, describing the build-up as part of an anti-drug mission.
Analysts say it marks the largest American naval deployment in the Caribbean in decades, fuelling fears that Washington could be preparing direct military action against Venezuelan territory.
Legal experts have questioned the legitimacy of the recent killings, noting that drug trafficking is not a capital offence under US law. Washington has yet to provide detailed evidence that the targeted boats were carrying narcotics.
At the same time, the US government has renewed its push to strip legal protections from more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants living in the country.
On Friday, the Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to overturn a federal judge’s ruling that blocked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans.
The Justice Department argued that the lower court’s order was preventing the administration from acting in what it described as the “national interest.” “This court’s orders are binding on litigants and lower courts,” it said in its filing.
In May, the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration by overturning an earlier ruling that had temporarily preserved TPS for Venezuelans. But on 5 September, Judge Edward Chen of San Francisco issued his final decision, finding that Noem’s action violated federal administrative law.
TPS, established by Congress in 1990, allows nationals from countries facing armed conflict, natural disasters or other extraordinary crises to remain in the United States with work and travel authorisation.
Former president Joe Biden had extended the protection until October 2026 for around 600,000 Venezuelans, citing the country’s political repression and deep economic collapse, worsened by US sanctions against President Nicolás Maduro’s government.
According to the United Nations, millions of Venezuelans have fled their country in recent years, creating one of the world’s largest migration crises.
