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The Biden administration has launched a new program deporting Venezuelan migrants to Colombia, despite the president’s condemnation of similar actions by the Trump administration.
The initiative has brought blowback from members of Biden’s own party, who say the roughly 50,000 Venezuelans detained last year at the US-Mexico border were fleeing their country’s authoritarian socialist government and posed no threat to the homeland.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed Tuesday that the administration had reached a new deal for Colombia’s government to accept the Venezuelans.
“It’s just starting now,” Psaki said of the program in response to a question from reporter Bricio Segovia of MVS Noticias.
The US government accepts asylum-seekers who present evidence of political persecution, but the Venezuelans are being deported under the Title 42 policy that invokes the COVID-19 pandemic to streamline deportations.
“In this case, pursuant to Title 42, we began repatriating Venezuelan nationals who had attempted to unlawfully enter the United States to Colombia where they had previously resided,” Psaki said.
“Flights to Colombia with Venezuelan nationals who have legal status are expected to take place on a regular basis and will be operated by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Of course, th at requires agreement with the government [of Colombia].”
As a candidate in 2020, Biden slammed then-President Donald Trump for deporting at least 180 Venezuelans to Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean.
Biden tweeted at the time, “Not only does President Trump refuse to grant Temporary Protected Status to Venezuelans, but he also apparently used stealth deportations to send them back to the oppressive Maduro regime. It’s abundantly clear he has no regard for the suffering of the Venezuelan people.”
The president has sought unsuccessfully to scrap a similar deportation policy that returned mostly Central American asylum-seekers to Mexico until their cases were heard. The Biden administration is in the process of restoring that program, called “Remain in Mexico,” due to court orders, but plans to launch a new attempt to end it.
Critics of the new deportation policy note that many Venezuelans are fleeing the government of President Nicolas Maduro, as well as rampant and oftentimes government-linked violence and hyperinflation in the country.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) said Tuesday that “the recent reports of the Biden Administration removing Venezuelans through third countries is extremely disturbing.”
“By continuing to use a page from Trump’s immigration enforcement playbook, this administration is turning its back on the immigrants who need our protection the most,” Menendez said. “Under Maduro’s cruel regime, Venezuelans who are sent back face a grim future and, in many cases, harsh consequences for seeking political asylum in the United States.”
The Biden administration move comes amid a surge in illegal immigration last year, which Republicans attribute to Biden’s policies. In fiscal year 2021, which ended Sept. 30, authorities recorded more than 1.7 million migrant encounters at the US-Mexico border, the highest number in decades.
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