The Biden administration said Thursday that it will start sending Venezuelan migrants who illegally cross the US border back to their troubled homeland.
The Biden administration said Thursday that it will start sending Venezuelan migrants who illegally cross the US border back to their troubled homeland — despite prior threats failing to stem a surge in illegal crossings as the warnings went unenforced.
“In keeping with our commitment to enforce our immigration laws, and to continue strengthening the consequences for those who cross our border unlawfully, the United States is announcing today that it will resume direct repatriations of Venezuelan nationals who cross our border unlawfully and do not establish a legal basis to remain,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a press release.
The threatened deportations would be costly if actually conducted. Roughly 200,000 Venezuelans illegally crossed the Southwest border in the most recent 11 months of Customs and Border Protection data, forming about 9% of all such transits.
The DHS announcement did not specify whether US government aircraft would be used, but one-way commercial flights, which sometimes are tapped for such repatriations, are extremely expensive due to low demand caused by safety and economic concerns in Venezuela. The cost of flights from border states to Caracas can reach up to thousands of dollars.
Large-scale deportations to Venezuela would likely spark a humanitarian outcry, as the country’s authoritarian socialist government has presided over intense internal repression of dissidents as years-long hyperinflation and one of the highest murder rates in the Western Hemisphere has sent citizens fleeing.
Homeland Security said that the announcement “follows a decision by authorities from Venezuela to accept the return of Venezuelan nationals.
