The fourth flight with deportees from the USA to Caracas took off this week (EFE/Lucas Aguayo Araos)
(Washington, United States) The government of USA emphasized this Friday that, following the agreement reached last month with the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro, the resumption of the Deportations of Venezuelans Towards Caracas, The number of entry attempts by nationals of this country has been drastically reduced.
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This was revealed by Blas Nuñez-Neto, deputy undersecretary for border and immigration policy at the Department of Homeland Security, during a press conference with Eric Jacobstein, deputy undersecretary for Central America and immigration at the State Department.
“We found a 74% decrease in Venezuelan national assemblies in the second half of October compared to Septembersomething that we obviously attribute to the resumption of repatriation flights,” Nuñez-Neto said.
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He also pointed this out Crossings through the dangerous Darién jungle have decreased significantly. between Colombia and Panama.
The official reported that the fourth flight from the United States to Caracas took off this week and people were returning to their country.
View of a group of Venezuelans boarding a plane to be transferred to their country (EFE/Joédson Alves)
Asked how deportations can affect the safety of people returned to countries with authoritarian governments, the official noted that deportations are carried out taking into account international obligations such as the Convention Against Torture. “We are reviewing them carefully,” he said, assuring that people would not be deported if there was a “credible fear of torture.”
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“We only deport people to Cuba, Venezuela or any other country who have been ordered deported and who have no legal basis to remain in the United States,” he said.
U.S. authorities also reported that since the COVID-19 public health emergency was lifted on May 12, they have expelled or sent back more than 380,000 people who tried to enter the United States illegally through the border with Mexico. This is a historical record.
“Since May 12, we have expelled or returned more than 380,000 people caught attempting to enter the United States illegally or without authorization,” Nuñez-Neto said.
The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, accepted that the United States would start sending planes with deported Venezuelans (EFE/Miguel Gutiérrez)
The Washington Office on Latin American Affairs (WOLA), a Washington-based organization that closely follows human rights issues in the region, produces a weekly report on migration at the border with Mexico.
WOLA Defense Monitoring Director Adam Isacson wrote in his report this Friday that this decline in Venezuelan arrivals in the United States, the first since June, was foreseeable due to the announcement of the deportations.
Isacson defined it as the typical “wait and see” response, but expects sales to pick up soon.
Comparing the entire month of October to the entire month of September, the decline in Venezuelans’ income to the United States was 39% (66,584 in September to 40,863 in October).
“The cause appears to be the October 5 announcement by the governments of the United States and Venezuela that they would renew deportation flights to Caracas. Although these flights have been rare so far, the mere possibility of being sent back to Venezuela appears to have caused many Venezuelan citizens to consider migrating, to wait and postpone their plans,” Isacson said.
The expert assumed that “this decline is likely to be short-lived” as “conditions in the country continue to be terrible and Venezuelans considering migration will realize that the real likelihood of aerial deportation is low is.”
At the press conference, the US authorities also emphasized that there had also been records in the expansion of legal channels and regular routes for migrants.
For example, since January this year, more than 324,000 people have entered through official border ports using a mobile application that allows them to make appointments.
In addition, nearly 270,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans have entered the country on temporary humanitarian permits.
“This represents the largest expansion of legal routes into the United States in decades,” said Jacobstein, the State Department official.
In his speech, Jacobstein highlighted the regional cooperation and humanitarian assistance programs promoted by Joe Biden’s administration to address the migration crisis.
Recently, Biden announced nearly $500 million in additional humanitarian assistance for refugees and migrants in Latin America and the Caribbean. Over the past two years, the United States has provided more than $2.4 billion in humanitarian assistance to the region.
The official stressed the importance of addressing the causes of irregular migration so that people are not forced to make the journey to the north, which in most cases is very dangerous.