Venezuelans Get Stuck in Mexico More 03/28 06:17
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Venezuelan migrants often have a quick answer when asked
to name the most difficult stretch of their eight-country journey to the U.S.
border, and it's not the dayslong jungle trek through Colombia and Panama with
its venomous vipers, giant spiders and scorpions. It's Mexico.
"In the jungle, you have to prepare for animals. In Mexico, you have to
prepare for humans," Daniel Ventura, 37, said after three days walking through
the Darien Gap and four months waiting in Mexico to enter the U.S. legally
using the government's online appointment system, called CBP One. He and his
family of six were headed to Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, where he has a relative.
Mexico's crackdown on immigration in recent months -- at the urging of the
Biden administration -- has hit Venezuelans especially hard. The development
highlights how much the U.S. depends on Mexico to control migration, which has
reached unprecedented levels and is a top issue for voters as President Joe
Biden seeks reelection.
Arrests of migrants for illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border have
dropped so this year after a record high in December. The biggest decline was
among Venezuelans, whose arrests plummeted to 3,184 in February and 4,422 in
January from 49,717 in December.
While two months do not make a trend and illegal crossings remain high by
historical standards, Mexico's strategy to keep migrants closer to its border
with Guatemala than the U.S. is at least temporary relief for the Biden
administration.
Large numbers of Venezuelans began reaching the U.S. in 2021, first by
flying to Mexico and then on foot and by bus after Mexico imposed visa
restrictions. In September, Venezuelans briefly replaced Mexicans as the
largest nationality crossing the border.
Mexico's efforts have included forcing migrants from trains, flying and
busing them to the southern part of the country, and flying some home to
Venezuela.
Last week, Mexico said it would give about $110 a month for six months to
each Venezuelan it deports, hoping they won't come back. Mexican President
Andres Manuel Lpez Obrador extended the offer Tuesday to Ecuadorians and
Colombians.
"If you support people in their places of origin, the migratory flow reduces
considerably, but that requires resources and that is what the United States
government has not wanted to do," said Lpez Obrador, who is barred by term
limits from running in June elections.
Migrants say they must pay corrupt officials at Mexico's frequent government
checkpoints to avoid being sent back to southern cities. Each setback is costly
and frustrating.
"In the end, it is a business because wherever you get to, they want to take
the last of what you have," said Yessica Gutierrez, 30, who left Venezuela in
January in a group of 15 family members that includes young children. They
avoided some checkpoints by hiking through brush.
The group is now waiting in Mexico City to get an appointment so they can
legally cross the U.S.-Mexico border. To use the CBP One app, applicants must
be in central or northern Mexico. So Gutierrez's group sleeps in two donated
tents across the street from a migrant shelter and check the app daily.
More than 500,000 migrants have used the app to enter the U.S. at land
crossings with Mexico since its introduction in January 2023. They can stay in
the U.S. for two years under a presidential authority called parole, which
entitles them to work.
"I would rather cross the jungle 10 times than pass through Mexico once,"
said Jose Alberto Uzcategui, who left a construction job in the Venezuelan city
of Trujillo with his wife and sons, ages 5 and 7, in a family group of 11. They
are biding time in Mexico City until they have enough money for a phone so they
can use CBP One.
Venezuelans account for the vast majority of 73,166 migrants who crossed the
Darien Gap in January and February, which is on pace to pass last year's record
of more than 500,000, according to the Panamanian government, suggesting
Venezuelans are still fleeing a country that has lost more than 7 million
people amid political turmoil and economic decline. Mexican authorities stopped
Venezuelan migrants more than 56,000 times in February, about twice as much as
the previous two months, according to government figures.
"The underlying question here is: Where are the Venezuelans? They're in
Mexico, but where are they?" said Stephanie Brewer, who covers Mexico for the
Washington Office on Latin America, a group that monitors human rights abuses.
Mexico deported only about 429 Venezuelans during the first two months of
2024, meaning nearly all are waiting in Mexico.
Many fear that venturing north of Mexico City will get them fleeced or
returned to southern Mexico. The U.S. admits 1,450 people a day through CBP One
with appointments that are granted two weeks out.
Even if they evade Mexican authorities, migrants feel threatened by gangs
who kidnap, extort and commit other violent crimes.
"You have to go town by town because the cartels need to put food on their
plates," said Maria Victoria Colmenares, 27, who waited seven months in Mexico
City for a CBP One appointment, supporting her family by working as a waitress
while her husband worked at a car wash.
"It's worth the wait because it brings a reward," said Colmenares, who took
a taxi from the Tijuana airport to the border crossing with San Diego, hours
before her Tuesday appointment.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has touted his own efforts to explain the
recent reduction in illegal crossings in his state, where at least 95% of
Border Patrol arrests of Venezuelans occur. Those have included installing
razor wire, putting a floating barrier in the Rio Grande and making plans to
build a new base for members of the National Guard.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has mostly credited
Mexico for the drop in border arrests.
Some Venezuelans still come north despite the perils.
Marbelis Torrealba, 35, arrived in Matamoros, across the border from
Brownsville, Texas, with her sister and niece this week, carrying ashes of her
daughter who drowned in a boat that capsized in Nicaragua. She said they were
robbed by Mexican officials and gangs and returned several times to southern
Mexico.
A shelter arranged for them to enter the U.S. legally on emergency
humanitarian grounds, but she was prepared to cross illegally.
"I already experienced the worst: Seeing your child die in front of you and
not being able to do anything."