ICE deported his brother to El Salvador, so he hid in Texas, then fled back to Venezuela
By Gustavo Ocando Alex
Special to the Miami Herald
May 11, 2025 6:53 AM
Venezuelan migrant Jonferson Valera Yamarte hugs his family as he arrives back home in Maracaibo, Venezuela. Photo: Gustavo Ocando Alex MARACAIBO, VENEZUELA Jonferson Valera Yamarte, a young Venezuelan immigrant who had made his way to the U.S. last year, hid after he witnessed in March how federal agents arrested his brother and three friends in Dallas before deporting them to a maximum security mega prison in El Salvador.
Now, he is no longer in fear: His family received him with a party at their home in Venezuela. TOP VIDEOS “It’s the first time I’ve moved away from her, and I think it’s going to be the last,” said Yamarte, hugging his mother, Mercedes, just minutes after being greeted with hugs, tears and a rain of celebration foam in the neighborhood of Los Pescadores in Maracaibo, his hometown in northwestern Venezuela.
Yamarte, 21, flew from Mexico to Caracas on Thursday on a plane that was part of the Venezuelan government’s official repatriation plan “Return to the Homeland” and then traveled by land to Maracaibo. He got out of a military vehicle smiling after 7 a.m. on Saturday, before his neighborhood erupted in joy.
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