In South Florida’s Venezuelan enclave, big hopes that Trump’s pressure on Maduro succeeds

In Doral, a city in Miami-Dade County with the highest concentration of Venezuelans in the country, talk about Trump’s pressure campaign on Maduro is prevalent everywhere.

DORAL, Fla. — On a recent rainy afternoon near Miami, Maria Alejandra Barroso made her daily trek to Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church before heading to work and prayed for the Trump administration to succeed in ousting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

“Every day I pray for it to be peaceful and for innocent people to not get hurt,” she said in an interview on Tuesday.

Barroso, 44, a server at a restaurant, emigrated from Venezuela in 2022 and has a pending asylum case. President Donald Trump’s immigration policy changes have stripped legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants and put more of them at risk of deportation. But Barroso said that ending Maduro’s almost 13-year reign is far more important to her than any worries over possible deportation, since it would mean returning home.

Maria Alejandra Barroso outside Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Doral, Fla., on Tuesday.Carmen Sesin / NBC News“I’m not here because I want to be. It was necessary. I have friends in prison just for thinking differently,” she said. “We want democracy and peace. I completely trust the actions of President Trump.”

In Doral, a city in Miami-Dade County with the highest concentration of Venezuelans in the U.S., discussions revolve around whether Trump should get more involved in Venezuela and the controversy over the U.S. attacks on alleged drug boats. Talk about Trump’s pressure campaign on Maduro is prevalent everywhere, and Venezuelans in the enclave are bubbling with hope for Maduro’s ouster.