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México has successfully put a stop to the trend of Venezuelans flying into its airports and then walking into the United States after more than 100,000 were stopped at the border since last summer.
By Washington Examiner – Anna Giaritelli
Mar 18, 2022
Critics of the Biden administration’s border policies say the successful crackdown on Venezuelan crossings, the result of private talks between the Biden administration and México, shows the kind of action President Joe Biden could take to address the broader surge of illegal immigration.
But pressuring México to take action to block Venezuelans and others will be a nonstarter for Democrats and liberal immigration activists who want to welcome refugees fleeing Venezuela’s Maduro regime.
The number of apprehensions of Venezuelan migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-México border has dropped 88% from December to February because México, under pressure from the Biden administration, stopped allowing Venezuelans to fly into the country without a visa. In December 2021, 24,805 Venezuelans were stopped by authorities on the southern border. That figure dropped to 3,072 in February, federal data show.
But pressuring México to take action to block Venezuelans and others will be a nonstarter for Democrats and liberal immigration activists who want to welcome refugees fleeing Venezuela’s Maduro regime.
The number of apprehensions of Venezuelan migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-México border has dropped 88% from December to February because México, under pressure from the Biden administration, stopped allowing Venezuelans to fly into the country without a visa. In December 2021, 24,805 Venezuelans were stopped by authorities on the southern border. That figure dropped to 3,072 in February, federal data show.
“The first thing that this reinforces is that there are things that can be done to slow down this flow of people,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the restrictionist Center for Immigration Studies in Washington. “There’s not one thing but many things that can be done, and this is an important way that the president can affect the flow of illegal migrants – to work with other countries on their policies.”
“If it’s simply a matter of reducing the number of people coming to the United States, it’s hard to deny these haven’t been effective,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel at the American Immigration Council in Washington.
Migration to the southern border of the U.S. from far-off countries spiked in 2021 as economic turmoil and the Biden administration’s eased immigration policies prompted people from other continents to travel to America. More Venezuelans were encountered at the southern border by late 2021 than any other nationality of migrants.
More than 5 million Venezuelans have been displaced since Nicolas Maduro’s regime came to power in 2011. Most Venezuelan migrants fled to other countries in South América, including Colombia, Chile, and Brazil, while others in March 2021 began setting their sights on the U.S. as conditions in Venezuela worsened.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection data show that fewer than 80 Venezuelans were encountered at the U.S.-México border each year between 2007 and 2018. Over the past five months ending in February, more than 84,000 Venezuelans have shown up at the southern border, most illegally entering the country through Del Rio, Texas, and Yuma, Arizona, after flying into México.
Biden administration officials in Washington pushed their Mexican counterparts to limit Venezuelan travelers, though details of who was involved are not known, according to a November report from Reuters.
In January, the Mexican government barred Venezuelans from entering without obtaining a visa.
“To get to the United States by land from Venezuela requires passing through the Darien Gap, which is enormously difficult, dangerous, deadly, and as a result, many people can’t do it,” Reichlin-Melnick said, referring to a narrow strip of land that connects Central and South América. “So as a result, over the last year, tens of thousands of Venezuelans who wanted to seek asylum in the United States were able to fly into México without a visa, drive to the border, and turn themselves in to Border Patrol.”
At present, all illegal immigrants encountered at the border are supposed to be immediately sent back to México, although many are not. However, Venezuela will not accept back all of its citizens, and México has refused to accept them, forcing the U.S. to detain and release many into the country. Now, with just hundreds of Venezuelans reaching the U.S., there is less of a need for detention space and tens of thousands of releases into the U.S.
“The question of ‘Should they be doing it?’ I think that’s a complicated question,” Reichlin-Melnick said. “The United States has repeatedly said that the Maduro regime is persecuting its people, denying people their rights, and has oftentimes attempted to force the Maduro regime out of office. And yet we have leaned on México and said, ‘Do not let Venezuelans get to the United States to seek asylum.'”
“You have to look at that as, to some extent, hypocrisy. Surrounding countries around Venezuela have taken in millions of refugees,” Reichlin-Melnick continued. “Ask yourself whether or not the United States simultaneously declaring a country run by a dictator and also blocking those nationals from coming to the United States really makes sense.”
The move is not unprecedented. Last year, México also stopped permitting Ecuadorians and Brazilians entry without a visa, which led to similar dramatic declines in arrivals from both countries.
“It’s definitely the right thing to do,” said Vaughan. “They’re looking for ways that they can address the problem without having to anger their left flank. … The government is getting México to do their dirty work.”
But with migrants traveling from distant countries to the U.S. at rates never seen before, the idea of México banning admissions from individual countries may not be sustainable.
“It is, in some ways, a game of whack-a-mole. México has now imposed these restrictions on three different countries,” said Reichlin-Melnick. “But last month, we saw a massive increase in nationals from Colombia and Cuba. Both of those nations also can fly into México without any difficulty and without requiring a visa.”
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