Venezuelans deported from US before earthquakes remain missing, some families report deaths
WASHINGTON, DC: In Venezuela, some families are mourning while others are desperately searching for loved ones deported from the United States and who landed hours before last week’s twin earthquakes hit the country.
According to ICE Flight Monitor, an initiative of Human Rights First that tracks deportation flights, the deportees were on a Miami-bound flight carrying 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and seven children. The building collapsed while they were being processed at the Hotel Santuario La Llanada in the coastal state of La Guaira, one of the areas hardest hit by the magnitude-7.2 and magnitude-7.5 quakes.
Families search for missing loved ones amid rising death toll
Enit Hernandez told NBC News her husband, Jose Rafael Rossi Ydrogo, is one of the missing deportees.
“On Tuesday he called me and said they told him to gather his belongings because he was leaving the next day. That was the last time I ever heard from him,” Hernandez said from Texas, where the couple lived.
She said he was detained during a routine ICE check-in in Texas and deported the following day, even though he had been told a judge would review his case first.
“My entire life changed in just one day. There was no need for him to go through all of this. I’m here alone with my daughter now. It’s not easy,” she said.
Katherine Arana, a friend of one of the missing deportees, said she began compiling a spreadsheet to track those who were on the flight amid the chaos and lack of official information.
She said she had heard that at least 25 deportees were killed, 21 remained missing as of Monday, and nine had survived, though some recovered bodies had not yet been identified. Multiple relatives said authorities have not allowed them or rescue workers near the collapsed hotel.
On board the deportation flight were 146 Venezuelans
On board the deportation flight were 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and seven children, according to ICE Flight Monitor, an initiative of Human Rights First, which tracks deportation flights, The Associated Press reported.
The country’s main airport, Simón Bolivar International Airport, is in La Guaira, where the Hotel Santuario La Llanada collapsed. Other deportees have been processed there in the past.
Multiple relatives and friends have said authorities aren’t allowing them or rescue workers near the collapsed building, making it nearly impossible to obtain information.
From Chile, a cousin of Daniel Alejandro Nunez Ramírez, 28, who’s also missing, said that his mother was told he had been found alive in the rubble and had been taken out but that so far the family hasn’t found him in any of the hospitals.
“We feel destroyed, because it really hurts us,” said the cousin, Yaneth Gabriela Mejias Ramirez. “At the same time, we have faith we will find him. But even if he passed away, we want to find him.”
In Venezuela, the number of dead and injured has been rising since the magnitude-7.2 and -7.5 quakes struck Wednesday. The Venezuelan government raised the toll Monday to 1,719 dead and 5,034 injured. The United Nations estimates 50,000 people are missing.
