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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Venezuelan migrants usually have a fast reply when requested to call essentially the most tough stretch of their eight-country journey to the U.S. border, and it is not the dayslong jungle trek by Colombia and Panama with its venomous vipers, large spiders and scorpions. It is Mexico.
“Within the jungle, it’s a must to put together for animals. In Mexico, it’s a must to put together for people,” Daniel Ventura, 37, mentioned after three days strolling by the Darien Gap and 4 months ready in Mexico to enter the U.S. legally utilizing the federal government’s on-line appointment system, called CBP One. He and his household of six had been headed to Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, the place he has a relative.
Mexico’s crackdown on immigration in latest months — on the urging of the Biden administration — has hit Venezuelans particularly onerous. The event highlights how a lot the U.S. depends upon Mexico to regulate migration, which has reached unprecedented ranges and is a top issue for voters as President Joe Biden seeks reelection.
Arrests of migrants for illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped so this yr after a report excessive in December. The largest decline was amongst Venezuelans, whose arrests plummeted to three,184 in February and 4,422 in January from 49,717 in December.
Whereas two months don’t make a pattern and unlawful crossings stay excessive by historic requirements, Mexico’s technique to preserve migrants nearer to its border with Guatemala than the U.S. is no less than non permanent reduction for the Biden administration.
Giant numbers of Venezuelans started reaching the U.S. in 2021, first by flying to Mexico after which on foot and by bus after Mexico imposed visa restrictions. In September, Venezuelans briefly replaced Mexicans as the most important nationality crossing the border.
Mexico’s efforts have included forcing migrants from trains, flying and busing them to the southern a part of the nation, and flying some house to Venezuela.
Final week, Mexico mentioned it will give about $110 a month for six months to every Venezuelan it deports, hoping they will not come again. Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador prolonged the provide Tuesday to Ecuadorians and Colombians.
“In the event you help individuals of their locations of origin, the migratory movement reduces significantly, however that requires sources and that’s what the USA authorities has not needed to do,” mentioned López Obrador, who’s barred by time period limits from operating in June elections.
Migrants say they need to pay corrupt officers at Mexico’s frequent authorities checkpoints to keep away from being despatched again to southern cities. Every setback is dear and irritating.
“Ultimately, it’s a enterprise as a result of wherever you get to, they need to take the final of what you’ve,” mentioned Yessica Gutierrez, 30, who left Venezuela in January in a bunch of 15 members of the family that features younger kids. They averted some checkpoints by mountain climbing by brush.
The group is now ready in Mexico Metropolis to get an appointment to allow them to legally cross the U.S.-Mexico border. To make use of the CBP One app, candidates should be in central or northern Mexico. So Gutierrez’s group sleeps in two donated tents throughout the road from a migrant shelter and verify the app every day.
Greater than 500,000 migrants have used the app to enter the U.S. at land crossings with Mexico since its introduction in January 2023. They’ll keep within the U.S. for 2 years below a presidential authority called parole, which entitles them to work.
“I might moderately cross the jungle 10 instances than move by Mexico as soon as,” mentioned Jose Alberto Uzcategui, who left a building job within the Venezuelan metropolis of Trujillo together with his spouse and sons, ages 5 and seven, in a household group of 11. They’re biding time in Mexico Metropolis till they find the money for for a telephone to allow them to use CBP One.
Venezuelans account for the overwhelming majority of 73,166 migrants who crossed the Darien Hole in January and February, which is on tempo to move final yr’s report of greater than 500,000, in accordance with the Panamanian authorities, suggesting Venezuelans are nonetheless fleeing a rustic that has misplaced greater than 7 million individuals amid political turmoil and financial decline. Mexican authorities stopped Venezuelan migrants greater than 56,000 instances in February, about twice as a lot because the earlier two months, in accordance with authorities figures.
“The underlying query right here is: The place are the Venezuelans? They’re in Mexico, however the place are they?” mentioned Stephanie Brewer, who covers Mexico for the Washington Workplace on Latin America, a bunch that displays human rights abuses.
Mexico deported solely about 429 Venezuelans in the course of the first two months of 2024, that means almost all are ready in Mexico.
Many concern that venturing north of Mexico Metropolis will get them fleeced or returned to southern Mexico. The U.S. admits 1,450 individuals a day by CBP One with appointments which can be granted two weeks out.
Even when they evade Mexican authorities, migrants really feel threatened by gangs who kidnap, extort and commit different violent crimes.
“You need to go city by city as a result of the cartels must put meals on their plates,” mentioned Maria Victoria Colmenares, 27, who waited seven months in Mexico Metropolis for a CBP One appointment, supporting her household by working as a waitress whereas her husband labored at a automobile wash.
“It is definitely worth the wait as a result of it brings a reward,” mentioned Colmenares, who took a taxi from the Tijuana airport to the border crossing with San Diego, hours earlier than her Tuesday appointment.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has touted his own efforts to clarify the latest discount in unlawful crossings in his state, the place no less than 95% of Border Patrol arrests of Venezuelans happen. These have included putting in razor wire, placing a floating barrier in the Rio Grande and planning to build a new base for members of the Nationwide Guard.
U.S. Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has largely credited Mexico for the drop in border arrests.
Some Venezuelans nonetheless come north regardless of the perils.
Marbelis Torrealba, 35, arrived in Matamoros, throughout the border from Brownsville, Texas, together with her sister and niece this week, carrying ashes of her daughter who drowned in a ship that capsized in Nicaragua. She mentioned they had been robbed by Mexican officers and gangs and returned a number of instances to southern Mexico.
A shelter organized for them to enter the U.S. legally on emergency humanitarian grounds, however she was ready to cross illegally.
“I already skilled the worst: Seeing your little one die in entrance of you and never with the ability to do something.”
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Spagat reported from Tijuana, Mexico, and Gonzalez reported from Matamoros. Related Press reporter Rebecca Santana in Washington, D.C., additionally contributed.
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