Venezuelans fleeing repression showing up in record numbers at Mexican border
by Anna Giaritelli, Homeland Security Reporter |
| May 18, 2021 06:16 AM
Venezuelan migrants fleeing political repression and dire economic circumstances are increasingly traveling to the United States’s southern border, and nearly all are being admitted under the Biden administration.
The influx is drawing comparison to the mid-century surge of refugees to the U.S. as tens of thousands of people fled Cuba after the revolution in 1959, when Fidel Castro sought to align the country with the Soviet Union and communism. Amid the rush of Cubans attempting to make it across the Atlantic Ocean to Florida, the U.S. government in 1966 rolled out the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, which guaranteed anyone who made it to Florida would be allowed to pursue residency after one year.
The displacement of more than 5 million Venezuelans since President Nicolas Maduro came to power in 2011 is one of the largest crises in the world. Most Venezuelan migrants have fled to other countries in South America, including Colombia, Chile, and Brazil, while others in March began setting their sights on the U.S.
As the border crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border worsened for the third consecutive month in April, Border Patrol agents noted that they were seeing a lot of people from Venezuela who had trekked 3,000 miles across eight countries.