More and more Venezuelans are stranded in Mexico, which explains the drop in illegal crossings to the US

2024-03-28 06:58:02

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Venezuelan migrants are usually quick to answer the question about the most difficult part of their journey through eight countries to the United States border, and it is not the several-day trek through the jungle between Colombia and Panama with its poisonous vipers, giant spiders and scorpions. It is Mexico.

“In the jungle, you have to prepare for the animals. In Mexico, you have to prepare for humans,” said Daniel Ventura, 37, after three days traversing the Darien Gap and four months waiting in Mexico to legally enter the United States using the government’s online citation system. , called CBP One. He and his family of six are headed to Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, where a relative lives.

Mexico’s campaign against immigration in recent months — at the behest of Joe Biden’s government — has especially affected Venezuelans. This shows the extent to which Washington depends on Mexico to control immigration, which has reached unprecedented levels and is one of the main concerns of voters ahead of the November presidential elections, in which Biden seeks re-election.

Arrests of migrants crossing illegally from Mexico fell this year after reaching an all-time high in December. The greatest decrease occurred among Venezuelans, with 3,184 arrests in February and 4,422 in January, compared to 49,717 in December.

Although two months does not mark a trend and illegal crossings remain high compared to historical levels, Mexico’s strategy of keeping migrants close to its border with Guatemala, rather than the one it shares with the United States, is a temporary relief for the Biden administration.

Large numbers of Venezuelans began arriving in the United States in 2021, first after flying to Mexico and then, when the country imposed visa restrictions, on foot and by bus. In September, Venezuelans briefly replaced Mexicans as the main nationality at border crossings.

Mexican measures included forcing migrants to get off the trains they were traveling on, taking them south by plane and bus and returning some to Venezuela.

Last week, Mexico announced that it would give about $110 a month for six months to each Venezuelan it deports, in the hope that they will not return. The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, expanded the offer to Ecuadorians and Colombians on Tuesday.

“If you support people in their places of origin, the migratory flow is considerably reduced, but that requires resources and that is what the United States government has not wanted to do,” said López Obrador, who faces the limitations of the mandate prevent him from seeking re-election in June.

Migrants say they must pay corrupt officials at frequent government checkpoints to avoid being sent to cities in southern Mexico. Each setback is costly and frustrating.

Yessica Gutierrez, 30, left Venezuela in January with a group of 15 family members, including small children. She said they avoided some of the checkpoints by walking through the brush. The group is now waiting in Mexico City to get an appointment to legally cross into the United States. To use CBP One, applicants must be in central or northern Mexico, so their group sleeps in two donated tents in front of a migrant center and checks the application daily.

More than 500,000 migrants have used the app to enter the United States through land border crossings from Mexico since it began using it in January 2023. They can stay in the country for two years under a presidential authority, which also allows them to work .

Venezuelans are the vast majority of the 73,166 migrants who crossed the Darien Gap in January and February, and the number is on track to surpass last year’s record of more than 500,000, according to the Panamanian government, which suggests Venezuelans are still fleeing. of a country that has lost more than seven million inhabitants due to political turmoil and economic decline. Mexican authorities stopped Venezuelan migrants more than 56,000 times in February, almost twice as many as in the previous two months, according to their data.

“The underlying question here is: Where are the Venezuelans? “They’re in Mexico, but where?” said Stephanie Brewer, who covers Mexico for the Washington Office on Latin America, a group that monitors human rights abuses.

Mexico deported just 429 Venezuelans during the first two months of 2024, which means almost everyone else is waiting in the country.

They are very afraid to venture north of Mexico City in case they are attacked or returned to the south of the country. The United States admits 1,450 people a day through CBP One appointments, which are granted two weeks in advance.

Even if they manage to evade Mexican authorities, migrants feel threatened by gangs that kidnap, extort and commit other violent crimes.

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has praised his own efforts to explain the recent reduction in illegal crossings in his state, where the Border Patrol makes at least 95% of apprehensions of Venezuelans. Among other things, he installed barbed wire, a floating barrier in the Rio Grande and plans to build a new base for the National Guard.

US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas largely attributed the decline in border arrests to Mexico.

But some Venezuelans continue heading north despite the dangers.

Marbelis Torrealba, 35, arrived this week in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, with her sister, her niece and the ashes of her daughter, who drowned in a shipwreck in Nicaragua. She told Mexican authorities and gangs that they were robbed and returned several times to southern Mexico.

A shelter managed to allow them to legally enter the United States for reasons of humanitarian emergency, but was prepared to cross the border illegally.

“The worst thing has already happened to me: seeing your son dying in your face and without being able to do anything,” he said.

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Spagat reported from Tijuana, Mexico, and Gonzalez from Matamoros, Mexico. Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana in Washington, DC, contributed to this report.

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