Venezuelan, Colombian, Haitian and Peruvian migrants deported to Mexico choose to return to their countries of origin or look for work in Costa Rica
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 12 February 2025 — Irregular crossings by Cubans, Venezuelans, Colombians, Ecuadorians and Nicaraguans, in addition to Humanitarian Parole and the CBP One application promoted by the Joe Biden Administration, contributed to the increase of 3,000,000 “unauthorized immigrants” in the United States between 2019 and 2023. According to a report by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), in this last year a population of 13.7 million irregular migrants was registered. “The country had not seen such large annual increases since the early 2000s,” it emphasizes.
The document, prepared by an independent, nonpartisan group of experts based in Washington, notes that between 2010 and 2019, the number of irregular migrants remained stable. “Growing political repression in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela fueled new displacement” in 2021, which coincided with the recovery of the US economy after the pandemic.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, there were 13.7 million irregular migrants in the US in 2023
“At the same time, there was the economic crisis and episodes of insecurity in Central and South America, and outbreaks of gang violence in the Caribbean,” the report adds.
Among the 12.8 million migrants counted by the United States in 2023, 171,958 of them were Cubans . At the beginning of that year, “the Biden Administration created two new humanitarian parole processes: a program that allows Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans with American sponsors to travel to the United States on their own and through the use of the CBP One application, which allows migrants to schedule an appointment at a port of entry,” notes the MPI.
The numbers began to decline last year, according to the document due to “higher levels of law enforcement by Mexico and a series of asylum restrictions” months before the end of Biden’s administration. In the last two months of 2024, no Cubans arrived in the United States through humanitarian parole. The program that went into effect in 2023 and authorized travel to 110,970 citizens ended with the arrival of Donald Trump.
Under the Republican administration, the US is prioritizing deportations of illegal immigrants and has tightened border surveillance. On Tuesday, the Coast Guard returned 16 rafters who were intercepted 15 miles southwest of Gun Cay (Bahamas) on the Raymond Evan vessel.
Coast Guard Officer Brodie MacDonald warned that “we will continue to faithfully execute our border security mission in the Straits of Florida and the Caribbean Sea” and will deport those who try to enter illegally. Since the beginning of fiscal year 2025, on October 1, authorities have returned 98 Cubans, compared to 749 in fiscal year 2024.
On Tuesday, the Coast Guard returned 16 rafters who were intercepted in the Bahamas on the ship ’Raymond Evan’
Meanwhile, dozens of Venezuelans, Colombians, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Peruvians who were deported from the United States to Mexico have begun crossing the Nicaraguan border on their way back to their countries of origin, or to Costa Rica or Colombia in search of work, they themselves reported to the local press on Tuesday.
The migrants have crossed the Las Manos border checkpoint, on the border between Honduras and Nicaragua, following changes in immigration policy implemented by the Donald Trump administration, according to testimonies offered to Radio ABC Stereo, a radio station in the northern region of Nicaragua.
Venezuelan Gustavo Enrique Gallardo told the media that he entered the United States on 20 December 2024, but that when he attended the immigration appointment he was detained for 45 days and later deported to Mexico. “We are going to Venezuela. They say (in the US) that we are criminals, but we are parents,” said the Maracaibo native.
Joel Martinez said his story was similar to Gallardo’s, except that he was only detained for a month and then sent to Mexico.
Also on the return trip were Venezuelans Milagros Rodríguez, her husband and their three children, who, according to their statements, were denied immigration appointments and, once their original permit expired, were deported to Mexico.
Las Manos is one of three border checkpoints and an international route shared by Honduras and Nicaragua. In Nicaraguan territory, it is located in the municipality of Dipilto, department of Nueva Segovia, 255 kilometers north of Managua.
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