The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees US immigration enforcement agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), shared a statement but did not offer details about the case when asked by the BBC.

“This flight arrived safely in Venezuela and all illegal aliens on board were returned to their homes,” a DHS spokesperson told the BBC on Tuesday. “When an individual is no longer in ICE custody, ICE is no longer responsible for them.”

As part of its mass deportation campaign, the Trump administration has detained and deported thousands of migrants who entered the United States illegally, while millions more people left voluntarily, according to US officials.

Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced in February that, over the previous 13 months, “nearly 3 million illegal aliens have left the United States… including approximately 2.2 million self-deportations and more than 713,000 deportations.”

Venezuelan authorities housed the passengers of last week’s deportation flight – reportedly including 19 women and seven children – at the Hotel Santuario La Llanada in the city of La Guaira after they underwent medical examinations and received documentation. The area has been especially hard hit with widespread damage and collapsed buildings.

The Venezuelan government has published phone numbers for the general public to call, but information has been limited in the wake of such a devastating national disaster.

Many passengers on flights like Rincón had contacted their relatives to inform them that they were back in Venezuela, just before the earthquakes occurred.

Rincón’s grandfather, José Rincón, told BBC Mundo that he saw at least 200 bodies, including in a morgue in Caracas, searching for his 23-year-old grandson.

He even tried, unsuccessfully, to visit the remains of the destroyed hotel, where his grandson and the other deportees were staying.

Access was blocked by Venezuelan authorities, who told the grandfather that “there was no life” in the place.

“If we could see what we need to see, if I could see the rubble, I would be satisfied, but days have passed and I still haven’t found him, dead or alive… So what am I supposed to do?” Rincón told the BBC.

Darwin Eliecer Serrano López, 35, called a cousin at 5:32 p.m. local time to tell him that he had returned home after four years of living in the United States. The first earthquake occurred just half an hour later.

“We drove all night,” said his cousin, Paola Chacón, whose brother had first received the phone call alerting the family that Serrano López had returned to Venezuela.

Lopez had originally been detained in Chicago, then held in four detention centers before U.S. authorities flew him out of the country, his relatives said.

Chacón resigned himself to believing his cousin was dead, he told BBC Mundo on Monday, as the family searched for him for almost a week without any sign of him.

“It’s been so many days… we didn’t get any response,” he said.

But “we’re going to stay here until we can take [Darwin’s body] home,” he added.