Venezuelans in record numbers seek asylum
Applications double in number, surpass Chinese requests
Carlos Sanchez worries constantly about the safety of the family he left behind in Venezuela three years ago.
“What worries me the most is that something might happen to them, like getting robbed or that they get killed for some reason, or that they get kidnapped because they think that because I’m here I have a lot of money,” said Sanchez, 19, who lives in Maryland with his father.
Sanchez is one of thousands of Venezuelans who migrated to the United States in search of a better life, as the economic and political situation in the once oil-rich nation becomes more desperate and anti-government protests erupt almost daily for the fourth straight month.
Between January and March, 8,301 Venezuelans requested asylum in the United States, nearly double the number in the same period of 2016.
In 2016, the U.S. received the most asylum applications from Venezuela — 18,155, a number that surpassed Chinese asylum requests for the first time, according to the Associated Press.
That spike in applications comes just as the Trump administration has made it more difficult for asylum seekers to gain entry into the U.S. as part of its broader efforts to increase vetting of foreigners in the name of national security. Immigration advocacy groups say the administration has gone too far, filing a lawsuit last week that claims the administration is illegally refusing to allow some asylum seekers to even file an application.
Venezuela could set another record this year because the numbers do not include requests filed since the anti-government protests started in April, said Julio Henriquez, director of the Refugee Freedom Program in Boston, a group that offers legal aid to immigrants.
“In 2017 these figures have increased in disproportionate levels,” said Henriquez. “The number of asylum seekers increases each month.” A report with updated numbers since the protests is scheduled to be released in August, he added.
A combination of factors in Venezuela are prompting people to leave the country — high levels of homicides and robberies, shortages of food and medicine, as well as record-high inflation, Henriquez said.
“All of the friends I grew up with, kids that were my age from my neighborhood, the majority of them are dead, others are in prison,” Sanchez said. “It makes me very sad because it is my country, and a lot of them were really good friends of mine.”
Francisco Marquez, 31, who lives in Washington, was imprisoned in Venezuela for four months last year for belonging to the opposition party Voluntad Popular. When released, he was told to leave the country immediately or he’d be put back in jail, Marquez said.
More than 2.5 million Venezuelans live abroad — almost 8% of the population — and most didn’t leave the country voluntarily, said Marquez, the executive director of Visión Democrática, which promotes economic and social development in Venezuela.