Authored by Melanie Sun via The Epoch Times,

Venezuela has said it will once again accept U.S. repatriation flights carrying its nationals deported for illegally entering the United States.

Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro announced that a deal had been reached in a televised address on Saturday.

“Tomorrow, thanks to the government’s perseverance, we'll resume flights to continue rescuing and freeing migrants from prisons in the United States,” Maduro said.

Venezuela’s Parliament President and chief negotiator with the United States, Jorge Rodriguez, said in a statement on social media, “We have agreed with the U.S. government to resume the repatriation of Venezuelan migrants with an initial flight tomorrow, Sunday.”

This will prevent illegal immigrants who are Venezuelan nationals from being deported to detention centers in El Salvador, as well as guarantee “the return of our compatriots to their nation with the safeguard of their Human Rights,” he said, referring to Venezuelan gang members currently detained in El Salvador.

“Migrating isn’t a crime, and we won’t rest until everyone who wants to return is back and we rescue our kidnapped brothers in El Salvador,” Rodriguez added.

The Epoch Times has contacted the White House for comment.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened on March 18 further harsh sanctions after Maduro on March 8 suspended taking in repatriation flights in response to the U.S. Treasury Department’s withdrawal of Chevron’s license to participate in Venezuela’s oil

A diplomatic spat erupted, with the United States threatening to send criminal illegal immigrants from Venezuela to El Salvador for detention if Caracas would not accept them.

Some 350 Venezuelan nationals had already been deported back home as part of Trump’s rapid deportation program that prioritizes removing illegal immigrants who are violent criminals or terrorists. Among them were some 180 alleged to be Tren de Aragua members who spent up to 16 days at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Tren de Aragua originated in a Venezuelan prison. Members have accompanied an exodus of millions of economic immigrants and political refugees from Venezuela seeking better living conditions after their nation’s democracy and economy came undone last decade.

In February, President Donald Trump had already designated Tren de Aragua, alongside the transnational organization Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and several drug cartels, as terrorist organizations that “threaten the security of United States nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.”

As Maduro’s freeze continued, the Trump administration on March 15 invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act that allows a president to detain and deport noncitizens of hostile nations without the necessity of a judicial hearing. The Act is applicable to wartime or when there is a “predatory incursion,” or attempt or threat to invade U.S. territory. The White House said that Tren de Aragua was an invading force, and that it would act to deport gang members.

Around 250 Venezuelan illegal immigrants said to be linked with Tren de Aragua were then deported to a high-security prison in El Salvador.

Venezuela’s interior minister has denied that the deportees were members of Tren de Aragua.

Their families and lawyers say they have not been able to reach them, and have demanded Maduro secure their return to Venezuela. They argue that the Trump administration has not provided evidence that the deportees committed any crime in the United States. The Trump administration said it has the right to deport illegal immigrants, and has been prioritizing criminals and others found in their vicinity.

Maduro, in his televised address, said he held El Salvador President Nayib Bukele responsible for imprisoning his nationals, repeating that they hadn’t committed crimes in the United States or El Salvador.

“You have to guarantee their health and sooner rather than later, you have to free them and hand them over,” he told Bukele.

A federal judge in the District of Columbia had issued an order temporarily barring the deportation of five Venezuelans but the administration said flights were already in the air by the time of the ruling.

The planes landed in El Salvador and Bukele posted on social media that the intervention came “too late.”

The White House has faced allegations of defying the judge’s order, which it refutes.

Judge James Boesberg has ordered the Trump administration to submit more information on its officials’ claims that they did not violate his order temporarily blocking the expulsions in a March 25 hearing.