The agreement that President Donald Trump in January foisted on leftist Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro to accept thousands of Venezuelan air deportees is teetering. Maduro is mad because the Trump administration canceled a license allowing Chevron to operate in the South American country, citing the fact that Maduro has only accepted a few hundred criminal alien Venezuelans.

The Trump administration should let that deal fail and be glad, because it was never needed. Most of the nearly 1 million Venezuelans who illegally crossed the U.S. southern border were living contentedly in more than 20 other peaceful countries for years before they realized the Biden administration would grant them an American lifestyle upgrade. Many Venezuelan migrants were granted U.S. asylum by lying about the fact that they had lived for years already in other safe, welcoming countries.

The Trump administration can readily — and in good conscience — just send them back to these other countries in Latin America and Europe that already accepted them once, and had provided residency, asylum, and work authorization status.

According to interviews I have conducted with thousands of Venezuelans intending to cross the U.S. border along the migrant trails of Latin America in recent years, virtually none had lived in Venezuela for five, eight, or even 10 years when they showed up at the border falsely claiming they had only just now fled Maduro for U.S. sanctuary. Some young Venezuelan men and women I interviewed have no recollection of ever living in Venezuela at all.