The Biden administration will resume deportations of Venezuelans, marking another drastic reversal in migration policy – as stalwart Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized the president for his “cruel” move to restart border wall construction.
Ocasio-Cortez shamed President Joe Biden and called on him to “revert” after he erected new border barriers, a signature policy of Donald Trump that Biden had previously condemned.
After a sharp increase in the number of migrants entering the U.S. illegally from Mexico, the Biden administration said this week it would suspend 26 federal laws to build additional sections of border wall in Starr County, Texas.
In a statement Thursday evening, the New York congresswoman criticized the move, saying: “The Biden administration was not required to expand border wall construction – and it was certainly not required to waive several environmental laws to expedite construction. “
“A wall does nothing to stop people fleeing poverty and violence from coming to the United States…Walls only serve to push migrants into more remote areas, increasing their chances of death.” “It’s a cruel one Politics,” she added.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shamed Biden and called on him to “reverse course” and begin building a new “physical barrier” after repealing 26 federal laws begun under Donald Trump
A U.S. Border Patrol agent monitors immigrants entering the United States after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, on September 30, 2023. The agent had cut rolls of barbed wire to pass through for processing
Ocasio-Cortez continued to blame U.S. sanctions on Venezuela for the current surge in migration and said the country needs to “rethink policy toward Latin America.”
Meanwhile, the United States will resume deporting Venezuelan migrants, the largest single group encountered at the southern border last month, to its economically struggling socialist country.
AOC’s full statement on Biden’s new border wall
“The Biden administration was not required to waive multiple environmental laws to expedite construction of the border wall.” The president must take responsibility for this decision and reverse course.
“A wall does not stop people fleeing poverty and violence from coming to the United States.” You are not risking your life or the lives of your children by walking through the Darién Gorge or hundreds of miles through the desert traverse if you have other options. Walls only serve to push migrants into more remote areas, increasing their risk of death. It’s a cruel policy.
“Instead, the United States must examine the causes of migration more seriously, rethink its policies toward Latin America, and stop contributing to the destabilization that drives migration – as Senator Marco Rubio’s Venezuela sanctions have done.” “We must also finally move into one invest in meaningful immigration reform.”
In a speech Thursday in Mexico City, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the new measure was one of the “strict consequences” the Biden administration would apply along with expanding legal pathways for asylum seekers.
“Both our countries are being challenged by unprecedented levels of migration across our hemisphere,” Mayorkas said, referring to Mexico, where he joined a high-level delegation of U.S. Cabinet officials for security talks.
Two U.S. officials told the AP that repatriation flights were expected to begin shortly. However, they did not provide any precise information about the start date of the flights.
The resumption of deportation flights comes shortly after the government increased temporary protected status for thousands of Venezuelans who had previously arrived in the United States.
You must have entered the country before July 31 of this year to be eligible for protected status. That means thousands who continue to cross the border will not receive the same reprieve from deportation.
Just this week, in making the latest expansion of protection official, Biden’s administration said it had determined that “extraordinary and temporary conditions continue to prevent Venezuelan nationals from returning to safety.”
Venezuela has plunged into an economic and political crisis over the past decade under socialist rulers Hugo Chávez and Nicholas Maduro, marked by hyperinflation, widespread famine and a rise in crime and political violence.
Mayorkas on Thursday addressed the contrast with the announcement of further deportations just days later, saying: “We have concluded that it is safe to return Venezuelan nationals who arrived in the United States after July 31 and have no legal basis to stay here.” .’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who led the US delegation to Mexico, added: “We have an ironclad commitment to providing protection to those who are eligible. That remains paramount in everything we do.”
The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service criticized the resumption of deportations and pointed out the obvious contradiction to the expansion of temporary protection status.
Cabinet officials (left to right) Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Attorney General Merrick Garland and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are seen on Thursday during a visit to Mexico for “high-level security discussions” on migration and the border
U.S. and Mexican officials are seen at the meeting. The Mexican government has committed to the United States to continue “vigorous” measures on migration and “assisted returns,” said Alicia Barcena, Mexican Foreign Minister
“Returning thousands of Venezuelans to the same unimaginably dangerous conditions they just fled is a deeply problematic policy for the world’s humanitarian leader,” the organization’s CEO, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, said in a statement.
Administration officials would not discuss details of how frequently deportation flights would be conducted to Venezuela or describe how Venezuela had agreed to readmit its citizens, except to say that the U.S., like other countries around the world, has been supporting Venezuela since have long encouraged the readmission of its citizens.
Cuba, another U.S. adversary, announced earlier this year that it would accept deported Cubans, but there was only one flight per month.
The US had sent some Venezuelans back via commercial flights, but in relatively small numbers and via third countries.
In Venezuela, the government said it had reached an agreement with U.S. officials on a safe and orderly repatriation.
“Venezuelan migration in recent years is a direct result of the use of unilateral coercive measures and a blockade of our economy,” the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. It said the government would support repatriated Venezuelans.
The U.S. move is the latest attempt to deal with the growing number of migrants as the government comes under increasing pressure from Republicans and mayors from the president’s own party to do more to slow arrivals.
The announcement came as Blinken and other senior Biden administration officials met with their counterparts in Mexico City on security issues.
Blinken discussed migration flows on Wednesday with Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena and the foreign ministers from Panama and Colombia.
Talks continued Thursday, including meetings between Blinken and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland with López Obrador.
Bárcena said about 10,000 encounters with migrants were recorded at the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday.
“We will continue to take strong measures, including continuing some of the efforts already undertaken related to assisted returns, as well as coordinating the dismantling of smuggling networks and human trafficking,” Bárcena said.
Blinken said the U.S. government is working to support those efforts.
“We are taking steps to help the most vulnerable, those most affected by organized crime, and training nearly 200 Mexican immigration officers to better screen, identify and assist potential victims of human trafficking,” Blinken said.
“The magnitude of this challenge requires that we redouble our efforts, that we do more to increase legal migration … more to address the root causes and more to humanely deter irregular migration,” Blinken said.
Migrants, most from Venezuela, cross the Puente Negro Ferrocarril railway bridge and surrender to authorities after wading across the Rio Grande into the United States on Thursday
U.S. Border Patrol agents escort migrants who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border through a gate in the border wall to be processed in El Paso on Thursday
López Obrador said Thursday during his daily news conference that Mexico had reiterated its position in talks that investments should be made to spur development in countries where migrants are leaving.
“People are leaving their cities not because they want to, but out of necessity,” the president said.
He also criticized the Biden administration’s announcement on Wednesday that it would suspend 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow border wall construction. López Obrador had previously praised Biden for not building more border walls during his presidency.
In August, the U.S. Border Patrol made 181,509 apprehensions on the Mexican border, a 37% increase from July but little change from August 2022 and significantly fewer than the more than 220,000 in December, figures released in September show.
The US has tried to get Mexico and countries further south to become more involved. In April, the United States, Panama and Colombia announced a campaign to slow migration through the treacherous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama.
But migration through the jungle has only accelerated and is expected to reach about 500,000 people this year – the vast majority from Venezuela.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures released by López Obrador, Venezuelans were stopped 25,777 times in the first 17 days of September, 63 percent more than in the same period a month earlier.
These included some people who were admitted for planned asylum dates, but the vast majority were illegal entries.
Venezuela has been mired in a political, economic and humanitarian crisis over the past decade, driving at least 7.3 million people to migrate and making food and other essentials unaffordable for those left behind.
The vast majority of refugees settled in neighboring Latin America, but many began coming to the United States in the last three years.
Deportation flights have been suspended in part because the United States has few diplomatic relations with the country.
U.S. and Mexican officials also discussed efforts to combat trafficking of the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl.
Mexican officials continued to explain, with some difficulty, López Obrador’s blanket claim that Mexico does not produce fentanyl, which the available evidence and the U.S. government say are false.
Bárcena, the foreign minister, said: “There is no contradiction, chemical precursors are not produced in Mexico.”
It was a tacit admission that Mexican cartels import precursors primarily from China and chemically process them into fentanyl. However, because the entire chemical process is not carried out in Mexico, the government claims that fentanyl is not manufactured here.
U.S. officials highlighted the recent extradition of Ovidio Guzmán López, a son of former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, to the U.S. on drug trafficking charges as a sign of cooperation between the two governments.