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Migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua lead the arrests at the southern border, with more than triple the number of individuals from those countries arrested so far this year, compared to the same point in 2021, according to government data.
On Tuesday, September 20th, President Joe Biden referred to the immigration crisis and stated that it is irrational to return migrants from these three nations to their countries.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Border Patrol agents made around 181,000 arrests of migrants crossing the southern border in August alone. Separately, Customs and Border Protection apprehended another 2,473 people while crossing illegally. With just one month left in the fiscal year, the figures surpass the 2.2 million encounters along the southwest border since October.
While the number of migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador has been falling —with 50% fewer migrants coming from those countries in August compared to the same period a year ago— the number of migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua have increased.
Title 42 gives the Border Patrol the power to remove some migrants without allowing them to apply for asylum. But the U.S. can only expel migrants who will accept their own countries, which means that because of strained relations, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua are also not receiving deportees from U.S. grounds.
“That has led the U.S. government to allow citizens from those countries to remain in the country to pursue their asylum claims, likely encouraging more people fleeing the three countries to make the dangerous journey to the U.S,” notes the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
Migrant surge: a cocktail of reasons
Everything indicates that the increase in migrants from tyrannies is not accidental. On one hand, there is the migration forced by the impoverished conditions in which the citizens of countries with regimes such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua live; on the other hand, there is Joe Biden’s statement that it would not be “rational” to send them back and, finally, the fact that some of these regimes are purposefully sending criminals to the U.S.
According to Breitbart, Venezuela’s socialist regime, led by dictator Nicolás Maduro, is emptying its prisons to send dangerous criminals to the U.S. border.
The report claims that an anonymous source at Customs and Border Protection (CBP) saw a Department of Homeland Security report received by the Border Patrol that “instructs agents to seek out Venezuelan inmates released from prison to enter the United States.”
Breitbart explains that authorities do not know whether these criminals travel in groups. However, the source indicated that Venezuelan immigrants understand that some fellow travelers who want to cross the border illegally are criminals.
Sabrina Martín Rondon is a Venezuelan journalist. Her source is politics and economics. She is a specialist in corporate communications and is committed to the task of dismantling the supposed benefits of socialism // Sabrina Martín Rondon es periodista venezolana. Su fuente es la política y economía. Es especialista en comunicaciones corporativas y se ha comprometido con la tarea de desmontar las supuestas bondades del socialismo