The United States government will resume deportation flights to Venezuela after years of freezing the practice to deter migration toward the southern border, authorities announced Thursday (5).
Venezuela has agreed to accept citizens deported from the United States, something that has not been possible since Washington and Caracas broke off diplomatic relations in 2019 and the South American country is subject to strong economic sanctions.
The US did not elaborate on how it persuaded Venezuela to agree to deportation flights again.
The American authorities limited themselves to explaining that they had been calling on Nicolás Maduro’s regime “for a long time” to “take in its citizens.”
For its part, the Foreign Ministry said the decision was taken after a “highlevel discussion” between the governments of the United States, Mexico, Colombia and Panama this Wednesday (4) in Mexico City on how to “combat irregular migration”. in the region.
The announcement comes amid an increase in arrests of people attempting to cross the U.S.Mexico border irregularly. More than 180,000 migrants were arrested in August alone.
Venezuelans are one of the groups that contributed to this increase: in June, 11,506 Venezuelans were arrested and in August that number rose to 22,172.
Until then, American authorities could not deport Venezuelans to Venezuela who did not meet the requirements for legal residency in the United States.
However, under an agreement with Mexico, the US had the option of sending a certain number of Venezuelans back across the border each month. According to the authorities, this practice will continue to accompany deportation flights.
The US has already identified “several individuals” in its custody who will be sent back to Venezuela on a first deportation flight “in the coming days,” they added.
This decision, one of the sources explained, shows the US determination to “impose consequences on irregular border crossers”.
“It is a direct consequence for people who did not use the legal migration channels we expanded,” the official said.
Since October last year, Joe Biden’s administration has implemented a humanitarian permit program called “Parole” that allows Venezuelans with a sponsor in the United States to travel to the country.
At the same time, last week Temporary Protected Status (TPS) was expanded to include Venezuelans who arrived in the U.S. before July 31, giving them legal status.
However, the law stipulates that you can only apply for asylum if you are already on American territory, which is why those seeking protection try to arrive at the southern border of the USA.
Since May of this year, the U.S. government has imposed a series of measures restricting access to asylum at the border and requiring people to make an appointment through an app called CBP One to apply for protection at various ports of entry.