In the middle of the night, political leaders, priests, students and activists languishing inside Nicaragua’s most notorious prisons were awoken, given the clothes they had been arrested in and told to dress. Hours later, 222 of them, widely considered political prisoners, landed at a Washington-area airport, deported from their own country.

The United States government said the massive release was both a “unilateral decision” by the government of President Daniel Ortega and the result of concerted diplomatic efforts.

President Joe Biden said Thursday that the U.S. believes all political prisoners should be released.

“And whether this is a token of their demonstration that they’re ready to begin to change the human rights policies or not remains to be seen,” Biden said in an interview with Telemundo Noticias. “But the fact that they were released, we’re happy to receive them and I’m glad they’re out.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was a positive step.

“The release of these individuals, one of whom is a U.S. citizen, by the government of Nicaragua marks a constructive step towards addressing human rights abuses in the country and opens the door to further dialogue between the United States and Nicaragua regarding issues of concern,” he said.