The number of Venezuelan migrants crossing the US-Mexico border has plummeted as a new bilateral policy has pushed thousands back to Mexico since last week, according to US and Mexican officials and a local shelter.
US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus told BloombergNews on Thursday that US border agents had encountered just 155 Venezuelans on Wednesday, down from the daily average of 1,200 earlier this month.
The administration of US President Joe Biden announced last week that it would begin expelling Venezuelan migrants back to Mexico under a pandemic-era order known as Title 42, denying them the opportunity to seek asylum at the border. from USA.
At the same time, the Democratic administration of Biden launched a new program to allow up to 24,000 Venezuelans with US sponsors and who meet other criteria to apply for humanitarian entry by air.
More than 4,500 Venezuelans have been returned to Mexico since the White House’s new expulsion policy began Oct. 12, said the Mexican government, whose shelters there are depleted.
The new effort comes as Republicans have criticized Biden’s handling of the border and seek to gain control of the US Congress in the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
At a shelter in the US border city of Deming, New Mexico, Venezuelans went from being the most common nationality to being absent, according to Ariana Saludares, executive director of Colores Unidos, which runs the center.
On Thursday, a US government bus transporting migrants from El Paso to the shelter to ease overcrowding was carrying about 50 Colombians, Ecuadorians, Peruvians, Dominicans and Nicaraguans, Saludares said.
The Republican governors of Texas and Arizona have bused thousands of immigrants to Democratic-led cities this year in high-profile campaigns to draw attention to what they say is Biden’s failure to secure the border.
A spokesman for Texas Governor Greg Abbott said buses could continue until Biden “does his job.”
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