Venezuela’s economic collapse is one of the world’s most lurid economic strategies in recent memory. The country’s lethal experiment with economic interventionism has created an enormous refugee crisis where Venezuelan migrants have flooded countries such as Chile, Colombia, Panama, and Peru. But it’s not just Spanish-speaking countries that are receiving Venezuelan migrants. The US has turned into an obvious destination for many Venezuelans fleeing from the current economic hellscape they’re living in.
Miami has traditionally been the main spot where Venezuelan migrants head to in the US due to its vibrant economy and pan-Hispanic culture that makes it unique among American cities. However, Venezuelans are beginning to enter the country in an unconventional manner.
According to a report by the Daily Caller, Border Patrol agents reported that they encountered over 68,000 migrants, which represented a fourfold increase in the number of encounters recorded in that same time period in 2020. One of the most recent wave of apprehensions that has received substantial media attention was the border patrol’s apprehension of 90 Venezuelan migrants in the timespan of one hour on May 26, 2021.
This group of migrants was accompanied by substantial numbers of children as Texas State Troopers waited for them before they processed the migrants. According to the report by Jorge Ventura of the Daily Caller, some of the migrants were thankful for setting foot on American soil due to the dire situation in Venezuela.
Ventura noted that state troopers have had to pick up the slack for Border Patrol due to the unprecedented wave of migration penetrating the southern border:
To spot the large group before crossing the Rio Grande River, state troopers used a drone to follow the large group. These large migrant groups cause border patrol to spend several hours processing and transporting family units instead of protecting the border.
“Every law enforcement officer in America is currently a border patrol agent because of the amount of drugs and illegals coming into the United States,” declared Art Del Cueto, the vice president of the National Border Patrol Council.
Under Biden, it’s clear that border security is an afterthought. While the Venezuelan people’s plight is tragic, American must prioritize its own people at this moment. A nation-state’s ultimate purpose is to serve its own people.
A pragmatic course of action for the US to pursue is to cooperate with Latin American states to have them assume the refugee burden coming from Venezuela. The US has taken in far too many migrants in the past 50 years and now needs to focus on its domestic affairs.
