\u201cWe don\u2019t want to live the same thing over again,\u201d Hernandez said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, some Venezuelans in the Chicago area who entered the country illegally or are without granted status have no protections from immigration enforcement under a second Trump administration \u2014 even as they seek to stay in the U.S. through legal avenues, experts say.<\/p>\n
![\"Yvette](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ctc-l-venezuelans-hopeful057682700-e1768011366523.jpg\")
Yvette Hernandez, right, serves food to Nataly Silva, left, and Crispina Gil, center, at her restaurant, Carato\u2019s Venezuelan Restaurant, on Jan. 8, 2026, in Roselle. (Stacey Wescott\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
Many now feel up against a wall, safe neither here nor there.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are afraid to stay and people are afraid to return,\u201d said Ana Gil, founder of the Illinois Venezuelan Alliance. She said Maduro\u2019s capture has further destabilized the country. Because of that instability, many Venezuelans in the Chicago area do not feel safe returning home, but also fear detention and deportation in the U.S.<\/p>\n
The uncertainty comes as the Trump administration has launched mass deportation actions across the country, including the fall\u2019s Operation Midway Blitz in the Chicago area that saw more than 4,300 people arrested,<\/a> with Venezuelans among those. On Wednesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement shot and killed a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis<\/a> as it expands increasingly dangerous enforcement across the country. And Thursday, Border Patrol officers shot and injured two people from Venezuela in Portland<\/a>, Oregon, during a targeted operation.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople have seen the way ICE has treated Venezuelan migrants, even if they have an asylum case. People are afraid of being tortured inside detention centers or of being deported to other countries,\u201d Gil said.<\/p>\n Luciano Pedota, also a member of the Illinois Venezuelan Alliance, said that although he rejoiced when he heard about Maduro\u2019s capture, he is concerned over his compatriots who recently lost temporary protected status, which provided a job permit and protection from deportation.<\/p>\n After a back-and-forth under the Biden administration, which extended TPS to Venezuelans first in 2021 and again in 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court last year allowed the Trump administration to cancel TPS protections for roughly 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants.<\/p>\n Some have likely applied for asylum, a yearslong process, but if the Trump administration can argue that conditions have improved in Venezuela, experts say it could set the stage for asylum cases to be rejected, putting them in line for deportation, something that was already happening during court check-ins and interview appointments.<\/p>\n Angelika Charczuk, an attorney at ADC Immigration Law, called it the \u201cmillion-dollar question\u201d on how conditions in Venezuela will affect the asylum cases of her clients from the country. She\u2019s already bracing for the government arguing a \u201cfundamental change in country conditions,\u201d which she said would likely decrease the merits of someone deserving refuge in the United States.<\/p>\n After more than five years in Chicago under TPS, Luis Jose Castro decided to return to Venezuela. Without protection and with little hope of obtaining asylum, he felt trapped. He also longed to see his two children and his parents who live there.<\/p>\n More than anything, he said, he wants to see his ailing father.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not worth it (staying here), I feel persecuted and I have never felt persecuted in my life,\u201d Castro said of immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n After arriving in Chicago, Castro worked as a construction worker before becoming a paralegal, helping thousands of recently arrived migrants assess their legal cases and apply for asylum.<\/p>\n On Jan. 27, Castro, an attorney by trade, plans to board a plane with a one-way ticket, hoping to take part in the creation of a new democracy in his country.<\/p>\n \u201cVenezuela needs us more than ever,\u201d Castro said.<\/p>\n Though there is uncertainty about who will lead, how change will come or when it will happen in Venezuela, he believes the U.S. and Venezuela will eventually establish a strong diplomatic relationship that will benefit those who remain in the U.S., those who return home and those already living there.<\/p>\n After all, his wife and son have chosen to remain in Chicago.<\/p>\n Mary Meg McCarthy, executive director of the National Immigrant Justice Center, said her team and other immigrant rights advocates are trying to gauge what the capture of Maduro, and the Trump administration\u2019s attempt to take over running the country, means for migrants\u2019 access to protection in the United States.<\/p>\n But \u201cthe resulting chaos and Venezuela\u2019s governmental instability should strengthen existing claims for protection, despite the Trump administration\u2019s repeated attempts to railroad people\u2019s access to asylum and other legal status,\u201d McCarthy said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is apparent that the U.S. government has no plan to ensure human rights protections for Venezuelans who will be directly impacted by the fallout of the Trump administration\u2019s removal of President Maduro,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n NIJC has provided immigration legal services to hundreds of Venezuelans who arrived in the Chicago area since August 2022, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott started busing immigrants to Chicago<\/a>.<\/p>\n Carmen is one of about 50,000 Venezuelans who came to Chicago in those years. She and her family crossed the perilous Darien Gap, a strip of land dividing Colombia and Panama that has become a dangerous crossing point for migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. She declined to use her last name for the article because she feared immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n Back home in Venezuela, her children were frequently denied school access because there were not enough teachers; they had fled the country, Carmen said. Some mothers would let their children sleep until noon because they could only afford to feed them once a day, she said.<\/p>\n![\"Luis](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ctc-venezuela-reaction7965660.jpg\")
Luis Jose Castro stands outside of his office along West 26th Street in Chicago on Jan. 9, 2026. Castro is from Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela. (Stacey Wescott\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n