Venezuela on Thursday flew home hundreds of citizens from Mexico, most of them US-bound migrants whose journey came to a premature end.

The Trump administration's decision to deport Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador despite a judge's explicit order that the planes carrying them be turned around represents an extraordinary escalation in the president's challenge to the U.

While portrayed by the Trump administration as hardened criminals, the Venezuelans deported from the United States were welcomed back with open arms as prodigal sons and daughters — ironically, by the man in charge of the repressive apparatus that initially forced many of them to flee.