More than 100 Venezuelans who were deported from the U.S. hours before the earthquakes are missing

By — Gisela Salomon, Associated Press Gisela Salomon, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/more-than-100-venezuelans-who-were-deported-from-the-u-s-hours-before-the-earthquakes-are-missing Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter More than 100 Venezuelans who were deported from the U.S. hours before the earthquakes are missing World Jun 29, 2026 5:23 PM EDT MIAMI (AP) — More than 100 people just deported from the United States were being held in a hotel when earthquakes struck Venezuela , setting off a scramble to find survivors and bodies buried in the rubble, according to survivors. A deportation flight from Miami arrived in Caracas hours before Wednesday's earthquakes. On board were 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and seven children, according to ICE Flight Monitor, an initiative of Human Rights First, which tracks deportation flights. Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. Lisbeth Portillo, 58, said she escaped the rubble from the hotel with about 20 other deportees who walked the streets looking for help. They saw people running, some naked and others barefoot as they emerged from the rubble of the building in La Guaira, one of the areas that was hardest hit in Wednesday's 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes. "We walked about five kilometers, and I cried and cried … there was no communication," Portillo said in a phone interview from her home in Maracaibo, Venezuela. They reached a National Guard building, where they had a chance to call relatives. "I was born again; God gave me a second chance," said Portillo. "I am traumatized," she said after a pause, weeping. The Venezuelan government says more than 1,700 people were killed. They survived the earthquake the same day that were deported from the U.S. A man sits amid earthquake rubble in La Guaira, Venezuela, on Monday. Photo by Matias Delacroix/AP Portillo was caught up in the Trump administration's drive for mass deportations. In May, ICE Flight Monitor tracked 288 deportation flights to 38 countries, including Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile and the Ivory Coast. The U.S. ran 12 deportation flights to Venezuela in May, operating three days a week, according to ICE Flight Monitor. Deportation flights to Venezuela resumed in February 2025 after a 13-month pause. Portillo said the government took them to the Hotel Santuario La Llanada, where they underwent medical exams and got identification documents. They were told they would go home the next day. Portillo was staying in a second floor room with 16 other women. She stepped onto a balcony to look at the sea and saw that the sky was black; it was very hot. She returned to the room, laid on a bed, and began to feel herself being shaken. "I started hearing 'papa, papa papapa,', and I saw the women next to me start to fall," she said, describing the sounds from the earthquake.