Yahoo Autos US prepares to expel Venezuelans to Mexico under bilateral accord
JUÁREZ — Migrant aid workers in this border city were preparing to receive potentially hundreds of Venezuelan migrants after the Biden administration reached an agreement with Mexico aimed at slowing migration at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Early Thursday, U.S. Border Patrol returned dozens of Mexican men and women at dawn over the Paso del Norte bridge, but the first Venezuelans had yet to arrive. To the west of the bridge, on the El Paso side, more than 300 Venezuelan men, women and families waited under tarps at the Border Patrol's mobile processing site under the Loop 375 overpass — worried and unsure whether they would be the first to be returned to Mexico under the new accord.
Mexico's government on Wednesday agreed to take in Venezuelans expelled by the U.S. under the pandemic-era health policy known as Title 42.
A group of Venezuelan men packed tightly behind orange barricades at the processing site said no one had yet told them whether they would be expelled to Mexico. The men said they had crossed the Rio Grande overnight or near dawn on Thursday, after the bilateral accord took effect.
"The news we heard — supposedly, people say, because I didn't hear it myself — that the president issued an order that one had to do a legal process, with a passport, involving a sponsor here and flying by plane," said Yohandris Romero Billalobos, 41. "But we came by bus."
The Biden administration has fought in court the use of Title 42 to expel migrants to their countries of origin. But the pandemic-era policy is a cornerstone of the administration's latest attempt to reduce the swell of migrants at the southern border. The plan is coupled with additional work visas for migrants traveling through Mexico.
In Juárez, migrant aid workers were waiting for the first returns of Venezuelans to begin.
“We’re waiting to see what impact this will have at the border because this decision will affect a population that hasn’t been staying here” in Juárez, said Enrique Valenzuela, executive director of the Center for Migrant Attention, a Chihuahua state migrant aid agency. “We still don’t know what their needs will be.”
Mexico's foreign relations ministry said the U.S. agreed to provide 65,000 H2-B work visas "to increase labor mobility in the region," including 20,000 visas reserved for people from Central America and Haiti. The additional temporary work visas roughly doubles the number allotted by the U.S. annually.
The U.S. also agreed to parole some 24,000 Venezuelans into the country by air via Mexico, akin to a program established earlier this year for Ukrainian refugees. Venezuelans must show they have a sponsor in the U.S., and those who attempt to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, or who enter Mexico after Oct. 12, won't be eligible for the program.
"The two governments will begin executing, starting today, a new system for soliciting entrance to the United States that prioritizes entry by air and not through the border with Mexico, based on the successful implementation of the program Uniting for Ukraine," Mexico Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said in the statement.
The Biden administration has continued to use Title 42 authority, a policy that originated with the Trump administration, to quickly expel migrants to their countries of origin. Mexico has continuously accepted its own citizens, as well as some Central Americans.
In Venezuela, the authoritarian regime of President Nicolás Maduro has presided over a severe economic crisis that has engendered rampant inflation and left many Venezuelans without access to food or medicine. The U.S. broke off diplomatic relations in 2019 and can't easily expel Venezuelan migrants to their country.
"Almost four times as many Venezuelans as last year attempted to cross our southern border, placing their lives in the hands of ruthless smuggling organizations," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement Wednesday. "The actions the United States and Mexico are announcing today are intended to address the most acute irregular migration and help ease pressure on the cities and states receiving these individuals."
El Paso has seen a surge in the number of Venezuelans seeking asylum or other immigration relief.
The U.S. Border Patrol El Paso Sector, which covers part of West Texas and all of New Mexico, has encountered more than 2,000 migrants per day in recent weeks — many of them Venezuelan asylum-seekers.
In September, the city set up a "Migrant Welcome Center" to provide bus rides for migrants to their desired destinations. Border Patrol is releasing some 700 people per day to the center, which has provided bus rides funded by FEMA for more than 17,000 migrants, according to city statistics.
El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser on Wednesday said he had spoken with Mayorkas ahead of the bilateral announcement.
“We have been working with the White House and all our partners throughout the country to manage the migrant surge we have experienced in the last few months," he said in a statement. "That includes our region’s elected officials, federal law enforcement agencies, NGOs here and elsewhere, partner cities, our city departments and many others.
"This decision will provide some much-needed decompression as we manage this humanitarian crisis," he said, "so that we may treat every individual with compassion while following the law and as all of us would like to be treated."
At the Border Patrol processing site under the Loop 375 overpass, migrant Romero Billalobos said he crossed two continents in 48 days, he said, and had no one to receive him in the United States, nor a destination in mind.
"There are so many rumors," said Yulián Navas, 25, standing pressed against Romero Billalobos and dozens of his compatriots.
"There is nothing concrete," he said. "I saw the news on the Internet. It said that now they won't grant asylum. That you have to be sponsored by someone in the United States with good economic standing. I have friends and I have family but I have to see first what is true."
This story will be updated.
El Paso Times reporter Adam Powell contributed to this report.
Lauren Villagran can be reached at lvillagran@elpasotimes.com or on Twitter @laurenvillagran.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: US prepares to expel Venezuelan migrants to Mexico under new deal
