In a high-stakes diplomatic win for President Donald J. Trump, ten American citizens and permanent residents held in Venezuela were freed Friday as part of a bold prisoner exchange deal involving El Salvador and Venezuela—advancing Trump’s ongoing push to bring wrongfully detained Americans home.

The tri-nation agreement, brokered in part by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, involved the return of more than 250 Venezuelan migrants with suspected gang affiliations who were previously deported under Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. In exchange, Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro agreed to release the jailed Americans.

“Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared, thanking Bukele for his critical role. Rubio, appointed by President Trump, has led efforts to combat socialist regimes across Latin America and restore U.S. strength abroad.

Maduro, desperate for a PR victory, hailed the prisoner trade as “a day of blessings and good news for Venezuela”—a predictable move for a dictator looking to whitewash human rights abuses and maintain his grip on power.

The Venezuelans sent home had been held in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), the world’s largest mega-prison built under Bukele’s war on organized crime. Most of the detainees were reportedly tied to the notorious Tren de Aragua gang, though evidence remains classified for national security reasons.

In March, El Salvador accepted $6 million in aid from the Trump administration to detain the migrants, many of whom had entered the United States illegally before being transferred to El Salvador under the revived Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used 1798 statute that Trump invoked to protect American communities from foreign threats.

Progressive activists and open-borders advocates immediately condemned the policy, sparking a courtroom battle that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. But Trump stood firm, citing national security and the right of sovereign nations to determine who crosses their borders.

Photos released Friday showed shackled Venezuelans under armed escort as they were loaded onto planes by riot police. One detainee flipped off the officers, while another made the sign of the cross as he boarded.

Upon arriving in Caracas, the migrants broke down in tears, hugged each other, and crossed themselves on Venezuelan soil. Maduro claimed that some suffered abuse during their imprisonment and alleged one lost a kidney from beatings—an unverified accusation clearly aimed at smearing Bukele’s tough-on-crime credentials.

Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said the returnees will undergo medical screenings and security checks before being allowed to reenter society.

Among them is reportedly Andry Hernández Romero, a makeup artist arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the San Diego border and transferred to El Salvador for detention.

Back in April, Bukele floated the idea of trading the Venezuelan migrants for political prisoners held in Caracas. Venezuelan officials balked, lashing out at Bukele as a “neofascist” for daring to highlight the Maduro regime’s brutal record on civil liberties.

The Trump-led State Department released a triumphant photo Friday night showing the newly freed Americans smiling aboard a U.S. aircraft, proudly holding the Stars and Stripes.

The plane landed at Joint Base San Antonio, where the returnees embraced family members and waved flags—emotional scenes that underline what leadership and resolve can accomplish when America puts its citizens first.

One of those freed, 37-year-old Lucas Hunter, was reportedly kidnapped by Venezuelan border guards in January while on vacation in Colombia. He’s now safely home.