“I won’t say it again,” interrupts a U.S. Border Patrol agent. He gives orders in Spanish to Rojas and a dozen other people to enter an idling van. “Only passports, money are allowed in your hands. All other items — rings, earrings, chains, rings and watches — must be carried in your backpack. You can also wear hats and shoelaces.
This is a common sight at the U.S.-Mexico Border during a time of increasing migration. These aren’t Mexican farmers or low-wage workers, but they make up the majority of those who cross. They are bankers, engineers, and doctors from Venezuela.
Rojas crossed the border two days later and she ran to catch a bus from Del Rio, Texas. The 54-year old recounted her story of fleeing Venezuelan hardships a few years back. She also spoke to family members who were not sure where she was.
However, when she realized how little she could do cleaning houses, she decided to move again — but this time without her kids.
She cried as her little grandson, who was now a toddler, appeared shirtless on the screen. Everything was perfect. “I didn’t stop moving one second.”
Last month, 7,484 Venezuelans encounteredborder patrol agents at the U.S. – more than any 14 year records.
This unexpected increase has been compared to the midcentury influx in Cubans fleeing Fidel Castro’s communist rule. This is also a sign of a new type migration that has caught Biden’s attention: pandemic refugees.
Nearly 17306 Venezuelans have illegally crossed the southern border since January. Many had lived for years in South American countries. This is part of a mass exodus of almost 6 million Venezuelans since President Nicolas Maduro assumed power in 2013.
Some are opposition to the government and fear harassment and imprisonment, but most are fleeing long-running economic devastation that has seen food shortages and blackouts.
They have been forced to move again as the pandemic continues in many areas of South America. They are being joined at the U.S. Border by more people from their original countries of refuge — a greater number of Brazilians and Ecuadorians have arrived this year, as well as other far-flung nations that were badly affected by the virus like India and Uzbekistan.
According to U.S. government data, 42% of families who crossed the border in May were from countries other than Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala. This is a significant increase in migration trends that has been a long-standing driver. This compares to just 8% in the recent sharp rise in migration in 2019. In May, the Border Patrol recorded over 180,000 encounters. This is a record that has stood for two decades and includes repeated attempts by migrants to cross.
Venezuelans have certain advantages over other migrants. This is due to their better financial status, higher education, and U.S. policies which failed to remove Maduro, but made it impossible for them to be deported.
Most people arrive in the U.S. near Del Rio. They don’t attempt to avoid detention, but instead surrender to Border Patrol agents to seek asylum.
Lis Briceno, 27, had previously emigrated to Venezuela as a child. She graduated with a degree as a petroleum engineer, but she was unable to get a job in the Maracaibo oil fields without pledging her loyalty to Venezuela’s socialist leaders. She moved to Chile several years ago and found work at a technology company.
However, as anti-government unrest and a pandemic ravaged Chile’s economy and sales plummeted, her company was shuttered.
Briceno sold everything she had — her refrigerator, telephone, and bed — in order to raise $4,000 to pay for her trip to the U.S. She packed a backpack with a heart lock amulet that she received from a friend to keep away evil spirits.
Briceno stated, “I thought I would come here on vacation to see the sights you see in movies.” But doing this? Never.
Although Central Americans and others may spend months trekking through jungle, sleeping on freight trains or in makeshift camps managed by cartels, most Venezuelans arrive in the U.S. within four days.
Tiffany Burrow, the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition shelter manager in Del Rio said, “This is a journey that they’re definitely ready for from a financially standpoint.” She explained that migrants can eat, clean, and purchase bus tickets to Miami and Houston, as well as other cities with large Venezuelan populations.
They fly first to Mexico City and Cancun where foreign visitors are down significantly, but almost 45,000 Venezuelans arrived within the first four months. Facebook has seen a rash of “travel agencies” advertising themselves as smugglers, offering hassle-free transportation to the U.S. for $3,000.
“We’re doing it the same way they do here — under the tables,” a smuggler stated in a voicemail that a migrant shared to the AP. “You won’t be alone. You will always have someone to lean on you.”
This price includes a guide from Ciudad Acuna where most Venezuelans cross over the Rio Grande. Because it was largely spared from the violence at the border, the hardworking town is appealing to both migrants with deeper pockets and smugglers. It’s located just a few hundred steps from Del Rio.
Austin L. Skero II is the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Del Rio section. He said, “If you are a smuggler who’s in the business moving commodities — because that’s what they view money, guns and people as products — then you want it to be moved through the most safe area possible charging the highest prices.”
However, the number of smugglers with weapons in the area has increased recently and agents who normally hunt criminals are now processing migrants.
Skero stated that the increase in migrants crossing the border is “purely a diversion tactic” used by the cartels to commit crime. He spoke as a group consisting of young Haitians emerged from a thicket containing tall carrizo cane along the riverbank.
Venezuelans are more likely to be successful once they arrive in the U.S. than any other group. Biden granted temporary protected status to 320,000 Venezuelans in March. This designation permits people from war-ravaged countries to legally work in the United States and protects them from being deported.
Although new arrivals are not eligible, Venezuelans who apply for asylum, as nearly all do, tend to be granted. This is partly due to the fact that the U.S. government supports reports of political repression. According to Syracuse University’s Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse, only 26% of Venezuelan asylum requests were denied. This compares with a 80% rejection rate for Central American asylum-seekers who are from less violent, poorer countries.
Jodi Goodwin, an Harlingen, Texas immigration lawyer, said that she can quickly write the asylum requests of over 100 Venezuelans. These are people with higher education who are more able to advocate for themselves. They can also tell their stories in a clean, chronological way than judges are used to.
Even Venezuelans who are facing deportation may have some hope. When it recognized Juan Guaido in 2019 as Venezuela’s rightful leader, the Trump administration ended diplomatic relations with Maduro. Removal is almost impossible because of the suspension of air travel, including charter flights.
Despite the fact that they have to leave Del Rio in order to reunite with their loved ones in America, the migrants are optimistic that they will be able to achieve the opportunity they were denied back home with hard work and sacrifice.
Briceno stated that she would have earned $50 per month if she had stayed Venezuelan, barely enough to survive.
Briceno tells me, as she hustles to catch a bus to Houston, where her boyfriend got a job in the oil industry, that it’s better to use the toilets here than to be an engineer over there.