US Is Resuming Direct Deportation of Venezuelan Migrants

Administration announces resumption of direct deportation flights
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 6, 2023 1:00 AM CDT
US to Start Deporting Venezuelan Migrants Again
FILE - Immigrants from Venezuela are reflected in a marble wall while taking shelter at the Chicago Police Department's 16th District station on May 1, 2023.   (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, FIle)

The Biden administration will resume deporting Venezuelan migrants, the largest single group encountered at the US-Mexico border last month, back to their economically troubled country as their arrivals continue to grow. US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, speaking in Mexico City Thursday, cited the new measure as one of the "strict consequences" the Biden administration is pairing with the expansion of legal pathways for asylum seekers, the AP reports. "Our two countries are being challenged by an unprecedented level of migration throughout our hemisphere," Mayorkas said, referring to Mexico. The move marks the resumption of direct deportation flights; a senior administration official tells NBC News Venezuelan nationals have been removed via commercial flights for years now, though the AP notes those have been in relatively small numbers and through third countries.

The repatriation flights are expected to begin shortly, said two US officials who didn't give an exact date to the AP; one senior administration official tells NBC some migrants who will be deported have already been identified and "will be removed promptly in the coming days." The resumption of deportation flights comes not long after the administration increased protected status for thousands of Venezuelans who had previously arrived to the US; they must have entered the country before July 31 of this year to be eligible for temporary protected status. In making the recent expansion of protections official, President Joe Biden's administration said just this week that it had determined that "extraordinary and temporary conditions continue to prevent Venezuelan nationals from returning in safety."

Mayorkas on Thursday addressed the contrast with the announcement just days later of more deportations, saying "we have made a determination it is safe to return Venezuelan nationals who arrived in the United States subsequent to July 31 and do not have a legal basis to remain here." US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who led a US delegation to Mexico, added that "we have an ironclad commitment to provide protection for those who qualify. That remains paramount in everything we're doing." In Venezuela, the government said it had reached an agreement with US officials for a safe and orderly repatriation. (More Venezuela stories.)

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