More Venezuelans were in the custody of the Border Patrol at the end of October than any other nationality of migrants, an indication of the extremely high numbers of displaced South Americans flocking to the United States amid the Biden administration’s lax border policies.
Never before have Venezuelans arrived at the border at the current rates. Usually, Mexico or Central American nations top the list of countries with the most citizens in federal custody at the border. The mass arrival of migrants from other, more remote countries is an indication that the migration problem is larger than the administration has acknowledged.
Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat who represents a border district, said that authorities told him that of the groups among the almost 10,000 people in custody on Oct. 31, “No. 1 were Venezuelans.”
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency of the Border Patrol, would not confirm or deny the internal data.
“We even had 40-plus Russian migrants encountered in the southwest,” Cuellar added, pointing to the diverse groups of migrants being apprehended at the border in recent weeks.
Venezuelans have fled their homes for the U.S. for a number of reasons. The displacement of more than 5 million Venezuelans since Nicolas Maduro’s regime came to power in 2011 is one of the largest crises in the world. Most Venezuelan migrants fled to other countries in South America, including Colombia, Chile, and Brazil, while others in March began setting their sights on the U.S.
“There’s been so much economic and political instability in Venezuela over time, and then you get COVID that has exasperated that and just caused everybody and their brother to flee Venezuela,” said Rosanna Berardi, managing partner of Berardi Immigration Law, which has offices in the U.S., Canada, and England. “Lack of fuel, electricity, clean water. There’s riots there — there’s just a huge economic crisis.”
But Berardi also said the surge of populations who have not historically traveled to the border for refuge also has something to do with the Biden administration.
“My personal opinion: a lot of this is the election of Joe Biden. Many people, many countries have felt that our immigration laws were going to get lax and have made the trek to the United States,” said Berardi. “So much of the rhetoric on the campaign trail was, ‘We’re going to get rid of all this terrible stuff that the Trump administration did. We’re going to make it easier. We’re going to do a guest worker program. We’re going to do this.’ It’s the same thing every politician says, right? Then they get to office and they’re like, ‘Oh, shoot. Congress should really do this.’ And Congress won’t do anything.”
Cris Ramon, an immigration policy analyst in Washington, said many Venezuelans initially fled when the situation in the country got bad, but now, many are choosing to leave because they have realized things are not going to get better.
“There were those people who — the moment things started going south with the political oppression and the economic crisis in the country is dealing with — the people who were ready to go, left, and they went largely to the surrounding countries,” Ramon said. “As the situation has continued to deteriorate, you have people who are like, ‘I’ll wait it out. I’ll see where things go. Maybe there might be a resolution to what’s happening in my country.’ When that didn’t happen, then you start seeing more people starting to look not only in South America but as well as places further north.”
Federal data reveal fewer than 80 Venezuelans were encountered at the border each year from 2007 to 2018. As the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border commenced in March, border authorities began seeing a lot of people from Venezuela who had trekked 3,000 miles across eight countries or flown into Mexico and then traveled to the U.S. In October 2020, just 135 Venezuelans were encountered at the border, compared to more than 10,000 in September of this year.
Venezuela’s neighbor, Colombia, put forward a plan to give Venezuelan migrants 10-year protections to live there. But with so many millions evacuating, many have fled to surrounding countries. In September, Venezuelans were the fifth-highest nationality applying for asylum in Mexico. Ninety-seven percent of applicants were approved.
“This isn’t just the US border,” said Ramon. “This is truly, truly hemispheric.”
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CBP would not disclose the total number of Venezuelans encountered during October. A senior official at Border Patrol headquarters in Washington said more Venezuelans have been counted in the first four days of November than any other nationality of migrants.
