Venezuelan migrants are new border challenge for Biden administration

US does not recognize leader, so most allowed into the country

Record numbers of Venezuelan migrants have been crossing into the United States in recent months, posing a new border challenge for the Biden administration and raising concerns that more of the nearly 6 million people displaced from the South American nation could be heading north.

U.S. authorities intercepted 13,406 Venezuelan migrants along the Mexico border in October, the highest one-month total ever and more than double the number taken into custody in August. The influx includes Venezuelans who left their homes years ago for Colombia and other countries in the region, as well as more recent emigrants fleeing violence, economic collapse and authoritarian rule.

The U.S. government does not recognize Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro as the country’s legitimate president, limiting the ability of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to send migrants back.

As a result, nearly all of the Venezuelans crossing the Mexico border are being released into the United States. ICE carried out just 150 deportations to Venezuela between October 2020 and August 2021, a period when nearly 40,000 Venezuelans crossed the U.S. border illegally, according to agency statistics.

Those figures contrast with the treatment of Haitian migrants, whom the Biden administration has expelled en masse since September using the Title 42 emergency public health law. Last month fewer than 1% of Venezuelans were expelled under Title 42, while 48% of Haitians were returned.

“This is a hard one for the administration,” said Andrew Selee, president of the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute in Washington. “They don’t want to send people back to Venezuela. At same time, if Venezuelan nationals are allowed in, it creates incentives for others to try.”

The new migration pattern is different from previous waves of Venezuelan arrivals because it is occurring along the U.S. southern border, and includes a large share of migrants who left their country years ago. These “secondary displacements” span a much wider social and economic range than the wealthier and middle-class Venezuelans who have arrived over the past two decades, often resettling in South Florida after flying into the United States, many with visas.

The new Venezuelan influx is also a test for Republican politicians who have historically welcomed refugees from socialist and communist states but whose immigration views hardened under President Donald Trump. Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, whose proposals to cut immigration have been widely embraced in the GOP, argues Venezuelans should seek refuge closer to home or the first country where they arrive.

“There’s no excuse for people from Venezuela to fly to Mexico and claim asylum in the United States,” Krikorian said.

Venezuelans do not require a tourist visa to visit Mexico, so many have been flying into Mexican border cities and walking across the border to Del Rio, Texas, or Yuma, Ariz. Both locations have a reputation as easier crossing points.