A visit to a Texas suburb that sits at the intersection of oil, immigration, and Venezuela.

I'm David Brancaccio.

More refiners of gasoline in the U.S., including Citgo and Philip 66, are moving to buy Venezuelan crew directly from Venezuelan producers.

This says the Trump administration has eased the licensing following the U.S.

arrest of Venezuela's leader in early January. Meanwhile, the administration is taking away work

permits and visas from many Venezuelans in the U.S. to pressure people to return to their native

country. One place where this is playing out is a Houston suburb. Marketplaces Elizabeth

Troval reports from Katie, Texas. At La Praderer Latin Market, a clean, well-lit store inside

a dingy strip mall. You can buy Venezuelan coffee, chocolate, and cheats.

Laideline Castellanos pulls a soft white cheese out of the fridge, along with a container of special cream.

Well, she shows me around, one of her regulars stops by.

Castellanos opened her shop in 2019 to cater to a Venezuelan population that has grown to roughly 75,000 people in the Houston metro area.

So many of them live in the small suburban city of Katie.

It's sometimes called Katie Suela.

Castellanos and her husband chose Katie for the good schools and affordable homes.

But this recent wave of immigration is not how Houston's relationship with Venezuela started.

Before Houston received tens of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants, it was Americans who sought opportunities in Venezuela.

In this training video from the 1950s, an American father is assigned to work in Venezuela's

oil fields and is riding back home to his wife.

Dear Anne, well, here I am at Lagunias in the oil fields.

The offshore wells run along the edge of Lake Maracaibo for more than 40 miles.

In Houston, Rice University professor Francisco Monaldi, who's from Venezuela, often meets

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