Biden adopts a Trump-era rule to expel Venezuelan migrants

The Biden Administration has approved new guidelines to deal with the rising numbers of Venezuelan migrants in the United States. These have proven to be a controversial turn from the government’s current migration policy.

According to Associated Press, the Biden Administration is making use of a Trump-era policy in which asylum seekers could be expelled if they represented a public health risk.

AP also pointed out that just a few weeks before, the Biden Administration was lambasting the governors of Florida and Texas for using Venezuelan migrants for political gain.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis flew out 50 mostly Venezuelan asylum seekers to Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts that is a well-known holiday destination.

The 50 migrants have now started a class action lawsuit against DeSantis (pictured) and Florida’s secretary of transportation. Ironically, since they have been victims of a crime, they now qualify for a U Visa.

Meanwhile, Texas governor Greg Abbott sent buses of undocumented migrants in front of the house of Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington, D.C.

The new, sudden White House policy would seek to parole 24,000 Venezuelan migrants into the United States under certain restrictions.

The Venezuelan migrants will be taken to Mexico, which has accepted to take one expelled migrant for each that the United States takes in legally.

First, they would have to come via US airports, meaning that those crossing the border by foot or arriving by sea would be immediately illegible.

Secondly, those wanting to come to the US would need a sponsor that could support them financially and otherwise.

This would mean that the most vulnerable Venezuelan migrants, those who have been forced to cross the Darien Gap and the Rio Grande, would have no path to legally migrate into the United States.

According to The New York Times, over 150,000 Venezuelans crossed the US border in 2022 alone.

AP News informed that Venezuelans have become the second migrant group entering the US border, after those coming from Mexico.

Also, given the strained relationship between the US and Venezuela, deportation is not an easy option.

Pictured: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro with Vladimir Putin in 2019.

The United Nations reports that almost 7 million Venezuelans have left their home country since 2015. Most of them heading towards nearby South American nations such as Colombia, Peru, and Chile.

However, many of these countries have started to apply tighter migrant policies in an attempt to reduce the flow of Venezuelan migrants into their territories.

The grand majority of them seek to flee a country overrun by a myriad of problems such as hyperinflation, an economic collapse, rampant gang violence, and abuse from an authoritarian government.

It’s hard to say what will be the destiny of Venezuelan migrants seeking a better life abroad.