On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that Venezuelans who seek to enter the U.S. illegally will be returned to Mexico effective immediately as part of a new migration policy.
“As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing work to build a fair, orderly, and secure immigration system, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is announcing joint actions with Mexico to reduce the number of people arriving at our Southwest border and create a more orderly and safe process for people fleeing the humanitarian and economic crisis in Venezuela,” according to the news release.
Anyone from Venezuela who enters the United States between ports of entry without proper documentation will be sent back to Mexico immediately.
More from the news release:
Effective immediately, Venezuelans who enter the United States between ports of entry, without authorization, will be returned to Mexico. At the same time, the United States and Mexico are reinforcing their coordinated enforcement operations to target human smuggling organizations and bring them to justice. That campaign will include new migration checkpoints, additional resources and personnel, joint targeting of human smuggling organizations, and expanded information sharing related to transit nodes, hotels, stash houses, and staging locations. The United States is also planning to offer additional security assistance to support regional partners to address the migration challenges in the Darién Gap.
Our comprehensive effort to reduce the irregular migration of Venezuelans also includes a new process to lawfully and safely bring up to 24,000 qualifying Venezuelans into the United States. The United States will not implement this process without Mexico keeping in place its independent but parallel effort to accept the return of Venezuelan nationals who bypass this process and attempt to enter irregularly.
“These actions make clear that there is a lawful and orderly way for Venezuelans to enter the United States, and lawful entry is the only way,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas. “Those who attempt to cross the southern border of the United States illegally will be returned to Mexico and will be ineligible for this process in the future. Those who follow the lawful process will have the opportunity to travel safely to the United States and become eligible to work here.”
This effort is intended to enhance border security by reducing the number of Venezuelans seeking to irregularly enter the United States. It is derived from the success of the Uniting for Ukraine (U4U) program, which decreased flows at the border by creating an orderly process for the entry of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
DHS also claims it will establish a new procedure to “lawfully and safely” accept 24,000 Venezuelans who meet certain criteria. The qualifications and restrictions are shown below.
To be eligible, Venezuelans must:
- have a supporter in the United States who will provide financial and other support;
- pass rigorous biometric and biographic national security and public safety screening and vetting; and
- complete vaccinations and other public health requirements.
Venezuelans are ineligible if they:
- have been ordered removed from the United States in the previous five years;
- have crossed without authorization between ports of entry after the date of announcement;
- have irregularly entered Mexico or Panama after the date of announcement, or are a permanent resident or dual national of any country other than Venezuela, or currently hold refugee status in any country; or
- have not completed vaccinations and other public health requirements.
On Wednesday, the first group of illegal immigrants from Venezuela, who fled the country because of a humanitarian crisis, corruption, and socialism, were deported to Mexico using the new DHS T42 rule in van-to-van transfer.
As shown in the video, the people that were deported were mostly women.
Watch the video below: