By Christopher Sherman, Elliot Spagat and Valerie Gonzalez -
The Associated Press
Venezuelan migrants often have a quick response when asked to name the most difficult stretch of their eight-country journey to the U.S. border, and it's not the one-day journey through the jungle through Colombia and Panama, where Venomous snakes, gigantic spiders and scorpions abound. It is Mexico.
“In the jungle you have to prepare for the animals. In Mexico, you have to prepare for humans,” said Daniel Ventura, 37, after walking three days through the Darien Gap and
waiting four months in Mexico to legally enter the United States
, using the online appointment system of the Government: CBP One. Together with his family of six, they were headed to Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, where he has a relative.
A family of Venezuelan immigrants has breakfast on the street in Mexico City, on March 26, 2024. Associated Press / AP
The fight against emigration in Mexico in recent months – at the request of the Biden Administration – has especially affected Venezuelans. This fact highlights the extent to which the United States depends on that country to control immigration, which has reached unprecedented levels and is one of the main issues for voters at a time when President Joe Biden seeks re-election.
Arrests of immigrants for illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped sharply this year after reaching an all-time high in December. The biggest decline came among Venezuelans,
whose arrests plummeted to 3,184 in February and 4,422 in January
, down from 49,717 in December.
Although two months does not mark a trend and illegal crossings remain high compared to historical levels, Mexico's strategy of keeping migrants closer to the border with Guatemala than the one it shares with the United States is a relief, as less temporary, for the Biden Government.
Large numbers of Venezuelans began arriving in the United States in 2021, first after flying to Mexico and then traveling on foot and by bus after that nation imposed visa restrictions. In September, Venezuelans briefly replaced Mexicans as the largest nationality crossing the border.
Mexico's efforts have included forcing migrants off trains, flying them and busing them to the southern part of the country, and flying some back to Venezuela.
Last week, Mexico said it would give about $110 a month for six months to each Venezuelan it deported, in the hope they would not return. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
extended the offer on Tuesday to Ecuadorians and Colombians
.
A migrant from Maracaibo, Venezuela, waits in a makeshift shelter in Mexico City, March 26, 2024. Associated Press
“If people are supported in their places of origin, the migratory flow is considerably reduced, but that requires resources and that is what the United States Government has not wanted to do,” declared López Obrador, to whom the limits of his mandate prevents him from running in the June elections.
Migrants say they must pay corrupt officials at Mexico's frequent government checkpoints to avoid being returned to southern cities. Each setback is costly and frustrating.
“In the end, it is a business because, wherever you go,
they want to take away the last thing you have
,” said Yessica Gutiérrez, 30, who left Venezuela in January in a group of 15 members of her family that includes young children. To avoid some controls, they walked in the middle of the mountain.
The group is now waiting in Mexico City for an appointment to legally cross the border between the United States and Mexico. To use the CBP One application, applicants must be located in central or northern Mexico. Therefore, Gutiérrez's group sleeps in two donated tents in front of a migrant shelter and checks the application daily.
More than 500,000 migrants have used the app to enter the United States through land border crossings with Mexico since its introduction in January 2023. They can remain in the United States for two years under a presidential authority called parole, which entitles them to work.
[Texas governor says they will arrest migrants despite blocking SB4 law]
“I would rather cross the jungle 10 times than go through Mexico once
,” said José Alberto Uzcategui, who left a construction job in the Venezuelan city of Trujillo with his wife and children, ages 5 and 7, as part of a family group of 11. They are waiting in Mexico City until they have enough money to buy a smartphone and access CBP One.
A Venezuelan migrant child, in a makeshift shelter in Mexico City, on March 26, 2024. Associated Press
Venezuelans represent the vast majority of the 73,166 migrants who crossed the Darien Gap in January and February, a figure that is on track to surpass last year's record of more than 500,000, according to the Panamanian government, suggesting that Venezuelans are still fleeing. from a country that has lost more than 7 million people amid political turmoil and economic decline. Mexican authorities detained Venezuelan migrants more than 56,000 times in February, about double the number in 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 almost all of them are waiting in Mexico.
Many fear venturing north of Mexico City, where they could be victims of dispossession or returned to southern Mexico. The United States admits 1,450 people a day through CBP One with appointments that are granted two weeks in advance.
Even if they manage to evade Mexican authorities, migrants feel threatened by gangs who kidnap, extort and commit other violent crimes.
[A decade of documenting more than 63,000 migrant deaths shows that fleeing is more deadly than ever]
“You have to go town by town because the cartels need to put food on their plates,” said María Victoria Colmenares, 27, who waited seven months in Mexico City for a CBP One appointment, and supported her family by working as a waitress. while her husband worked at a place where they washed cars.
A family of Venezuelan migrants, in Mexico City, on March 26, 2024. Associated Press
“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 his appointment on Tuesday.
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 apprehensions of Venezuelans occur. Among other things, he has installed barbed wire, placed a floating barrier on the Rio Grande and plans to build a new base for members of the National Guard.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has largely attributed the decline in border apprehensions to Mexico.
Some Venezuelans continue to come north despite the dangers.
Marbelis Torrealba, 35, arrived this week in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, with her sister and niece. She was carrying the ashes of her daughter, who drowned in a boat that capsized in Nicaragua. She said they were raided by Mexican officials and gangs and returned several times to southern Mexico.
[Latinos agree that there is a border crisis but differ with solutions proposed by non-Hispanics]
A shelter arranged for them to enter the United States legally for emergency humanitarian reasons, but she was willing to cross illegally.
“
I've already experienced the worst
: Seeing your daughter die in front of you and not being able to do anything,” he declared.