The American and Mexican governments signed, this Wednesday (12), a plan to facilitate the legal entry of Venezuelans into the United States. The program is based on a first semester decree that facilitated the refuge of Ukrainians in the country.
“Starting October 12, US authorities will begin managing access for 24,000 Venezuelan migrants by air,” the Mexican government’s statement announced.
The details of the new plan had not yet been published until the last update of this text, but according to a New York Times report published on Tuesday (11), the measure will allow organizations or American citizens to sign up as refugee sponsors and commit to provide financial assistance while the Venezuelan is in the country.
In recent months, thousands of Venezuelans have risked dangerous crossings to reach the United States, facing coyotes, human traffickers and sometimes bad weather. As Washington does not have formal diplomatic relations with Caracas, the US finds it difficult to deport them and, recently, the White House has opted to give refugees permission to remain in the country temporarily while they face legal proceedings.
With the new program, however, Washington will be able to send to Mexico part of the Venezuelans who cross the border illegally. For this, the White House would trigger Title 42, a controversial measure adopted by the Donald Trump administration that allows the rapid deportation of illegal migrants under the justification of sanitary measures to contain Covid-19.
Recently, Mexico had already agreed to receive Venezuelans expelled from the United States under this measure. “With immediate effect, Venezuelans who enter the United States through ports of entry without authorization will be returned to Mexico,” the US Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
The United Nations estimates that more than 6.8 million Venezuelans have fled their country. Still, according to the NYT, they represent only 7% of the total number of refugees who arrived in the US between October of last year and the end of August.
The program announced Wednesday does not apply to Venezuelans already in the US or Mexico. The US government hopes that the plan will encourage migrants to fly to the United States instead of traveling on foot and crossing borders illegally.
Last month, US President Joe Biden said he was analyzing the situation of Venezuelan, Cuban and Nicaraguan migrants in the US, but ruled out sending them back to their countries. The speech came amid a White House dispute with Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. In September, he chartered a plane and sent about 50 illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, a luxurious island off the coast of Massachusetts — the setting for mansions attributed to Democratic leaders such as former President Barack Obama.
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