One in four immigrants arrested by border patrol agents in September for illegally entering the U.S. across the border with Mexico is Venezuelan. According to the Department of Homeland Security, 54,833 Venezuelan citizens were arrested this weekend out of a total of 218,763 migrants of all origins, an absolute record for this nationality. That means more than 1,800 daily arrests of Venezuelans, more than Mexicans for the first time in a month. The latter lead the statistics for the year as a whole, in which the two million arrest mark was exceeded for the second time in a row.
The economic, social and political crisis that Venezuela has been going through for years has led to an unprecedented exodus of migrants in the country. Although Colombia was the most immediate destination, millions of Venezuelans have emigrated to other countries in the Americas and Europe and hundreds of thousands have followed the overland route through Central America and Mexico to the border with the United States, where there has been an explosion of arrests of Venezuelans.
Excluding the tens of thousands turned away at airports and ports of entry, border patrol apprehensions of Venezuelans at the southern border totaled 437,000 people in the last four U.S. fiscal years (from October 1 to September 30). But while there were only 1,227 arrests in 2020, the year of the pandemic; in 2021 it rose to 47,752; It then quadrupled to 187,286 in 2022, setting another record with 200,668 arrests in the year ended September 30.
The number of nearly 55,000 arrests of Venezuelans by border patrols in September 2023 breaks the previous record of 33,749 arrests in September 2022. The months with the highest number of arrests so far this year have been April (29,731) and May (28,054).
Joe Biden’s administration announced a month ago that it would grant work permits and protection from deportation to nearly half a million more Venezuelans already in the country. The measure only targeted Venezuelans who arrived in the United States before July 31, 2023. The number was added to the 242,000 Venezuelans who have already benefited from this temporary protected status in the country.
Joe Biden’s administration has tried to open more legal entry routes and make irregular immigration more difficult, but that hasn’t stopped illegal border crossings. The United States announced a model that allows people living in the United States to submit an application on behalf of a citizen entering the country if they can demonstrate that they have the subsistence or local support necessary to survive, which for example, facilitating family reunification. More than 265,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela entered airports in September after applying online and proving they had financial sponsors, but the arrival of immigrants has overwhelmed regular channels.
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The United States has just lifted sanctions on Venezuelan oil, gas and gold. Although these measures were the counterpart to agreements with the opposition to hold democratic presidential elections in 2024, and to which this Sunday’s opposition primaries represent a step, the United States also chartered the first immigrant deportation flight on Wednesday. Venezuelans who had crossed the US border without authorization. The Biden administration believes that the possibility of direct mass repatriation of immigrants to Venezuela, negotiated alongside the lifting of sanctions, is essential to preventing their arrival. Lifting the sanctions themselves can also improve Venezuela’s economic situation and prevent withdrawals.
Not only is the September figure a record for Venezuelans, but for the first time in a month, arrests also exceed those of Mexicans, the nationality that has consistently topped the statistics. In September, U.S. patrols along the southern border arrested 39,773 Mexican citizens.
More than two million immigrants
Arrests of Mexicans continue to dominate Border Patrol operations throughout the year. In the 12 months from October 2022 to September 2023 there were a total of 579,146. The number in this case is below the 738,780 arrests of Mexicans last year or the 608,037 in the year ended September 30, 2021, more than double the 253,118 arrests in 2020.
Guatemalans were the second most arrested by border patrols with Mexico this year, with 213,266 arrests. Venezuela (200,668), Honduras (180,659) and Colombia (154,077) are the following countries in the recently released official statistics.
The 218,763 apprehensions of citizens of all nationalities at the southern border last September represent a rate of nearly 7,300 people per day. The total number for the past year was 2,045,838 people, around 5,600 per day, exceeding the two million mark for the second time in a row. There were 2.2 million arrests in 2022 and 1.66 million in 2021, a number that more than quadrupled the previous year’s 400,651. Including legal routes, the number of border crossings reached a new monthly high of 269,735 in September and a new high for the fiscal year of almost 2.5 million.
The irregular entry of immigrants has become a major political problem for Joe Biden’s administration, which Republicans under Donald Trump accuse of allowing an “invasion.” The US government is trying to close irregular routes and offer legal routes that prevent illegal entries across the southern border, but so far without much success.
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