US to resume deportation flights for Venezuelan migrants

WASHINGTON (AP):

The Biden administration is to resume deporting migrants to Venezuela, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The process is expected to begin shortly, the officials said, though they did not provide specific details on when the flights would begin taking off. The officials were not authorised to publicly disclose details of the government’s plan ahead of an official announcement and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The news comes not long after the administration increased protected status for Venezuelans who arrive to the U.S. It reflects the larger strategy by President Joe Biden to not only provide expanded legal pathways for people arriving, but also to crack down on those who illegally cross into the country from Mexico.

Venezuela plunged into a political, economic and humanitarian crisis over the last decade, pushing at least 7.3 million people to migrate and making food and other necessities unaffordable for those who remain.

The Biden administration is expected to keep cap on refugees admitted to the US at 125,000

The vast majority who fled settled in neighbouring countries in Latin America, but many began coming to the United States in the last three years through the notoriously dangerous Darien Gap, a stretch of jungle in Panama.

It’s the latest effort to deal with swelling numbers of migrants at the US-Mexico border as the administration comes under increasing pressure from Republicans and mayors from the president’s own party to do more to slow migrant arrivals.

U.S. leaders were in Mexico this week to talk migration. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his Mexican counterpart Alicia Bárcena, as well as foreign ministers from Panama and Colombia, Wednesday. Talks were scheduled to continue Thursday, including a meeting between US Attorney General Merrick Garland and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

López Obrador said Thursday during his daily news briefing that Mexico has reiterated in talks its position that there should be investment to spur development in the countries that migrants leave.

“The people don’t abandon their towns because they want to, but rather out of necessity,” the president said. He also criticised the Biden administration’s announcement Wednesday that it waived 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow border wall construction. López Obrador had previously praised Biden for not building more border wall during his presidency.