Ciudad Juárez (Mexico), Oct 20 (EFE).- Migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and Cuba are in limbo on the Mexican border after the decision of the president of the United States, Joe Biden, to do not extend temporary permits for these nationalities and the promise of the former president (2017-2021) and Republican candidate, Donald Trump, to eliminate the ‘humanitarian parole’.
The immigration restrictions, imposed as the United States presidential elections approach on November 5, affect Ciudad Juárez, the epicenter in Mexico of the humanitarian crisis due to migration.
Given the elections and the change in immigration policy, “there are still many people surely expectant, attentive to the international political dynamics,” said Jesús Enrique Valenzuela, general coordinator of the State Population Council (COESPO).
“Even, we must say, these types of situations occur both in Mexico and in the United States and that, in some way, could affect immigration policy, well of course they impact the flow of people in some way,” he told EFE.
Without permission to migrate
The Biden Government announced on October 4 that it will not allow people from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela who arrived in the country with a program known as ‘humanitarian parole’ to extend the immigration benefit for more than two years.
More than half a million people of these four nationalities have entered the country under the program, which began in October 2022 for Venezuelans and was extended to the other three nationalities in February 2023.
The decision, announced less than a month before the November 5 elections, came amid criticism from Trump, who assured in September that, if he returned to the White House, he would end the benefit.
This has left migrants who are stranded in Mexico, such as Nicaraguan Lionel Martín Olivas, “very worried.”
«I left my country because I am politically persecuted and in that fact I could no longer return to my country and, if they do not let me enter the United States, then it hurts me a lot because I would be left in the air, I would no longer know what to do. And, like everything, one thinks about getting to the United States to get ahead,” he said.
Humanitarian permits, implemented by the current Administration, allowed migrants from these countries to request temporary protection in the United States due to crises in their nations of origin, but Trump maintained that this measure is “an invitation to uncontrolled immigration.”
Migrants who left these countries with the hope of requesting asylum in the United States now feel that their journey was in vain.
“It seems unfair to me because one goes through so much work to get here and one is applying, that is, to pass legally. One is no longer going through the wall or anything like that and it seems unfair to me that they want to close the application to so many people who we want to pass legally,” Darlenis, originally from Venezuela, commented on the matter.
The Government of Mexico reported 200,289 Venezuelans “in an irregular migratory situation” in the first half of 2024, 215% more than what was reported in the same period of the previous year, making Venezuela the main country of origin of irregular migrants in Mexico, where they represent more than one in four.
Immigration has been one of the pillars of Trump’s campaign, who has also promised to restore other more restrictive policies, such as the construction of the border wall and the reestablishment of the ‘Stay in Mexico’ program, which forces asylum seekers to wait in this country.
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