The government of Venezuela will take back tens of thousands of migrants, President Trump said Saturday, removing a major obstacle to his plans for mass deportations.

The deal was negotiated with Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro by Trump adviser Richard Grenell, who made a rare visit by a U.S. official to the capital, Caracas, on Friday. Grenell returned to the U.S. Friday evening with six Americans who had been detained in Venezuelan prisons.

“It is so good to have the Venezuela Hostages back home, and, very important to note, that Venezuela has agreed to receive, back into their Country, all Venezuela illegal aliens who were encamped in the U.S.,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site.

He noted that Venezuela would take back members of the Tren de Aragua, a violent gang that has recently come to the U.S., and that Venezuela would provide transport for its citizens to return.

The agreement will help Trump deliver on a campaign promise to deport millions of immigrants living in the U.S. without authorization. Accepting deportees is a reversal for Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro who has long refused to allow deportation planes from the U.S., where more than 600,000 Venezuelans had migrated in recent years and received special protected status allowing them to work temporarily.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration revoked a Biden-era decision that extended this status, meaning Venezuelans could be eligible for deportation as soon as April.

No financial or other concessions were promised to Maduro, apart from the prospect of improving the relationship with the U.S., Grenell said.

“The only award for Maduro was my physical presence, the first senior U.S. official to visit the country in years,” he said. “It was a big gift to him to have a visit by an envoy of President Trump.”

The visit by an American official to Venezuela, where the U.S. has had no official presence since 2019, was expected to convey a message to Venezuelan officials that the U.S. would continue to allow Chevron and other Western oil companies to operate in Venezuela, and that Trump would back off pressure on Maduro to make short-term democratic concessions, the people said. Maduro claims he won an election last July that the U.S. and other international observers say he clearly lost to the opposition.

Grenell’s visit helps Maduro claim legitimacy, even as most governments in the region don’t recognize him and he faces U.S. federal indictments on charges of drug trafficking and corruption. His office heavily publicized the meeting with Grenell, releasing photos of them shaking hands and smiling.

Around eight million Venezuelans have fled the country’s economic turmoil and political repression in recent years.

The deal that included the hostage release was secretly negotiated by the White House before Grenell obtained consent from Maduro during the Friday visit, which was agreed to only hours in advance, Grenell said

Grenell said he was summoned to the Oval Office on Thursday to a meeting with President Trump and Vice President JD Vance , where he was given orders to travel to Venezuela at 5 a.m. the next day.

President Trump ordered a military plane for Grenell and asked his subordinates to provide “a big one” in case Grenell would bring “something” back from Caracas, without saying anything about the potential return of the hostages, Grenell said.

After Maduro and Grenell shook hands on the deal, the hostages were brought to Grenell at the airport. They were blindfolded, hooded and handcuffed. When they entered the airplane, the unwitting crew broke into tears, Grenell said.