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The last word irony of the American Dream is that the person who had his life annihilated by U.S. immigration authorities nonetheless desperately desires the USA to intervene and “end the regime off” in his house nation. That man is Dario, a Venezuelan migrant who spent 17 months constructing a life within the U.S. earlier than ICE detained and deported him in July 2025.
Dario, who requested that his final title not be used on account of his authorized standing in Panama, was wiring lighting fixtures at Florida State College when his world collapsed. In accordance with The Hill, he had simply gone house to his residence to retrieve his passport for a financial institution go to. “Once I bought to the car parking zone, they grabbed me and despatched me to Venezuela,” he defined.
Instantly, every part he had labored for was gone. Dario was detained for about 20 days in shelters, recalling solely the sleepless nights and the tough fluorescent lights earlier than he was expelled. That is just about according to a number of the latest mass deportations that affected harmless migrants.
That may be a brutal actuality after spending almost a yr and a half contributing to the U.S. financial system
For these 17 months, Dario had been busy. After crossing into the U.S. illegally in 2024, he contacted pals who helped him discover regular work. He wired buildings for his firm throughout Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida. He wasn’t simply working for himself, although. His principal aim was to earn sufficient cash to restore his mom’s house in Guárico, Venezuela, and eventually plant the Persian lime bushes he had lengthy dreamed of cultivating.
His preliminary crossing in 2023 took him by means of the notorious Darién Hole, the roadless, 100-kilometer stretch of jungle and swamp between Colombia and Panama. It’s referred to as the world’s most harmful migrant route, a spot rife with treacherous rivers, lethal wildlife, and armed gangs. Dario remembers touring in a bunch of three,600 individuals throughout that first try, witnessing a Cuban lady drown.
In Panama, he met his fiancée, the granddaughter of one of many market distributors. “We bought to know one another, began going out,” Dario mentioned. He stayed a yr and a half, constructing a steady life. However ambition pulled him north in 2024, resulting in the 17 months of labor that ended abruptly together with his deportation in July 2025.
Again in Venezuela, Dario lasted solely a month. He offered what little he had and began strolling once more. This time, the second crossing of the Darién Hole in August 2025 was for love, not work. Sadly, the second journey was simply as harmful as the primary. “The second time, they robbed us,” he said. “They stole my telephone, my ID card and about $300 I used to be carrying.”
He misplaced way more than that in the entire ordeal. He’s nonetheless making an attempt to switch the paperwork misplaced throughout his detention. Authorities took his legitimate passport, which they by no means returned. He additionally misplaced his telephone and a gold chain he had purchased whereas working within the States.
Regardless of the chaos and the loss he suffered by the hands of U.S. authorities, Dario nonetheless appears to the U.S. as a supply of order. He describes his house nation as “really chaotic.” He laments that there’s no schooling, no cash, and no work there. That’s why his determined request is so surprising: “I would love, truthfully, if the U.S. goes in and finishes the regime off.” We all know that the U.S. authorities has been pushing for regime change in Venezuela, so he’s bought that going for him.
