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☆ Mexico working with U.S. on refugee plan for migrants in southern Mexico
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MEXICO CITY, July 26 (Reuters) - Mexico and the United States are working on a plan to process migrants in southern Mexico, encompassing Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, Mexico's incoming foreign minister Alicia Barcena said on Wednesday. She said Mexico was looking to set up an "international space" offering "multiple services" for migrants from the four countries who remained in Mexico after COVID-era curbs at the U.S. southern border ended in May. Asked about Barcena's comments, a Mexican official told Reuters that talks were still ongoing with the U.S. It would allow qualifying migrants approved for refugee status to enter via the U.S. refugee resettlement program, which is only available to applicants abroad, sources told Reuters. Unlike most migrants who claim asylum after entering the U.S., refugees receive immediate work authorization and government benefits such as housing and employment assistance.

Persons: Alicia Barcena, Barcena, López Obrador, Joe Biden's, Daina Beth Solomon, Dave Graham, Adriana Barrera, Alison Williams Organizations: MEXICO CITY, Reuters, U.S, Thomson Locations: MEXICO, Mexico, United States, U.S, Mexican

☆ Opinion | The Risks of Sanctions, the Tool America Loves to Use
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-22 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Nevertheless, this more modest policy, which supports a gradual return to democracy rather than abrupt regime change, is a better approach. The Biden administration should be more explicit about which sanctions in Venezuela would be lifted and when, especially those on the state-owned oil company. “The situation internally is really dire,” Mr. Reyna said. Many experts view sanctions as an important driver of migration from Venezuela because they worsen the economic conditions that push people to leave. In response, a group of Democratic lawmakers — including Representative Veronica Escobar of Texas, who co-chairs Mr. Biden’s re-election campaign — implored him to lift sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba.

Persons: Maduro hasn’t, Biden, Maduro, Feliciano Reyna, Acción, Mr, Reyna, Veronica Escobar, Biden’s, — Organizations: Mr, Democratic, Treasury Department Locations: Venezuela, U.S, Veronica Escobar of Texas, Cuba, United States

REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman/File PhotoHOUSTON, July 21 (Reuters) - A U.S. court set Oct. 23 as the start date for a long-expected auction of shares in Venezuela-owned refiner Citgo Petroleum's parent to pay creditors with judgments against the South American nation. U.S. Judge Leonard Stark in Delaware this week accepted a recommendation by a court official in charge of organizing the auction. Proceeds from any sale of PDV Holding shares would be used to pay off creditors previously cleared by the court. Any sale of Citgo without the participation of Venezuela would be "hurtful," Pedro Tellechea, Venezuela's oil minister, said on Friday. "It's not a PDVSA asset.

Persons: Jonathan Bachman, Judge Leonard Stark, PDV, Pedro Tellechea, Horacio Medina, Stark, Venezuela's, Hugo Chavez, PDVSA, Marianna Parraga, Gary McWilliams, Richard Chang, Grant McCool Organizations: Citgo Petroleum, REUTERS, South, Petróleos, PDV, U.S . Treasury Department, PDVSA, Crystallex, ConocoPhillips, Siemens Energy, Tree Investments, Inc, Huntington Ingalls Industries, ACL1 Investments, Rusoro, Koch Industries, Thomson Locations: U.S, Stowell , Texas, Venezuela, South American, PDV, Delaware

CARACAS, July 17 (Reuters) - The families of Venezuelan migrants lost in the Caribbean sea are demanding their government investigate the disappearance of their loved ones after years of stasis. In Aruba, migrants must scale rocky outcrops of up to four meters high and many fail, drowning as a result they said, though bodies have not been found. There are no investigations in Aruba or Curacao into the whereabouts of Venezuelan migrants missing during sea crossings, an official with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. "We went to Caracas to look for answers," said Ana Arias, a 43-year-old housewife whose daughter Luisannys Betancourt went missing on a boat journey in April 2019. Reporting by Vivian Sequera in Caracas, Tibisay Romero in Valencia and Mircely Guanipa in Maracay Writing by Oliver GriffinOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Jhonny Romero, Romero, Jhonny de Jesus, Shalick Clement, Ana Arias, Luisannys Betancourt, Luisannys, Carolina Bastardo, Ana Maria, We've, Vivian Sequera, Tibisay Romero, Mircely, Oliver Griffin Organizations: United Nations, International Organization for Migration, UN, Reuters, Boat, Caribbean Coast Guard, Thomson Locations: CARACAS, Venezuela's, Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, Curacao, Caracas, Africa, Europe, Colombia, Panama, Venezuelan, Grenada, Valencia

REUTERS/Daniel Becerril/File PhotoWASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY, July 2 (Reuters) - U.S. and Mexican officials are discussing a new U.S. refugee program for some non-Mexican asylum seekers waiting in Mexico, four sources said, part of President Joe Biden's attempts to create more legal avenues for migration. The program would likely be open to Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan refugees in Mexico, the sources said. Under another Biden program, Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans can request to enter the U.S. by air if they have U.S. sponsors. The initiative under discussion would be a "Priority Two" refugee program, the sources said, similar to one opened for Afghans in 2021. If the program encourages more migrants to enter Mexico, it could tax the country's already-strained resources for dealing with migrants, the official said.

Persons: Daniel Becerril, Joe Biden's, Biden, Alicia Barcena, Ted Hesson, Dave Graham, Daina Beth Solomon, Kristina Cooke, Mica Rosenberg, Mary Milliken, Grant McCool Organizations: REUTERS, MEXICO CITY, Haitian, Nicaraguan, U.S, Biden, BIDEN, United Nations, Thomson Locations: Venezuela, Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, WASHINGTON, MEXICO, U.S, Mexican, Cuban, Latin America, Caribbean, America, Washington, Mexico City, San Francisco

☆ Venezuela blasts U.S. for critique over barred opposition candidate
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

CARACAS, July 1 (Reuters) - Venezuela's government on Saturday said it rejected the U.S. stance around the South American country's upcoming elections, calling it "interference," a day after the U.S. criticized Venezuela's decision to disqualify an opposition candidate. Maria Corina Machado, one of the favorites to win the Venezuelan opposition's nomination for president in an October primary, has been barred from holding public office for 15 years. In response, the U.S. State Department said Venezuelans should be able to act freely in the 2024 presidential elections, and disqualifying Machado "deprives" them of political rights. The Washington-based Organization of American States also rejected the decision to bar Machado and called for free and transparent elections. Reporting by Deisy Buitrago; Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Daniel WallisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Venezuela's, Maria Corina Machado, disqualifying Machado, deprives, Machado, Deisy Buitrago, Daina Beth Solomon, Daniel Wallis Organizations: Venezuelan, U.S . State Department, American, Thomson Locations: CARACAS, U.S, United States, Washington

☆ Venezuelan asylum seekers tripled in 2022, UN agency says
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

June 14 (Reuters) - Venezuelans seeking asylum abroad nearly tripled in 2022, according to the United Nations refugee agency, which found that more than two in five new asylum applicants globally last year came from Latin America and the Caribbean. Cuba, also hit by U.S. trade sanctions and fuel shortages, recorded the second highest asylum figure at 194,700, a six-fold increase on 2021. Asylum seekers primarily stayed within the region, particularly in neighboring countries, the UNHCR found, with the United States, Costa Rica and Mexico receiving the most requests. While 2022 saw countries process asylum requests faster than previous years, the UNHCR said that backlogs keep growing due to "the sheer volume of new applications." The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has urged migrants to use legal pathways to enter the United States, including using a mobile app called CBP One to schedule appointments to request asylum.

Persons: Joe Biden, Sarah Morland, Raul Cortes, Grant McCool Organizations: United Nations, Refugees, UNHCR, U.S, Thomson Locations: America, Caribbean, Venezuelan, Americas, Cuba, Nicaragua, Colombia, Honduras, Haiti, UNHCR, United States, Costa Rica, Mexico, Mexico City

☆ What’s in Our Queue? ChocQuibTown and More
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Julie Turkewitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Gabriela Brito is a 12-year-old Venezuelan immigrant to Colombia who, under the name Lela, gained fame rapping on buses to support her family. She channels the experiences of the seven million displaced Venezuelans in songs like “Calendario,” about her migration journey. “Just like you, I still hold the dream of returning,” she rasps in Spanish.

Persons: Gabriela Brito, “ Organizations: ” Locations: Colombia, Spanish

☆ Opinion | The Newest Immigrants Will Change American Spanish. That’s a Good Thing.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Ilan Stavans | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Today the Spanish language is the fourth-most-spoken language in the world, and it is the most common language spoken in the United States after English. Then there is the Mexican population that lived here long before the United States claimed their land. Each wave infused American Spanish with local flavor. That’s partly because the language spoken in each country has unique characteristics, at the national and the regional level. American Spanish features all of these elements, which depend on the national background and geographic location of the speaker.

☆ Is Mexico doing the US’s ‘dirty work’ when it comes to migration?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Rafael Romo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

But the enforcement has been chaotic, sporadic and, in the words of a former top Mexican official, “inefficient.”Tonatiuh Guillén was commissioner of Mexico’s National Migration Institute until 2019. Luis Barron/Eyepix Group/NurPhoto/AP“Mexico became a control territory, [a place of] a severe migration policy, detentions, deterrence, and expulsions. ‘This is not about doing the United States’ dirty work’Mexican President Obrador denies Mexico is doing the US’s bidding when it comes to migration. Two months later, another 47 migrants were found alive crammed inside a truck in Matehuala (San Luis Potosí state), Mexico. Viangly, a Venezuelan migrant, reacts outside an ambulance while firefighters remove injured migrants, mostly Venezuelans, from a National Migration Institute building during a fire in Ciudad Juarez on March 27, 2023.

WASHINGTON/CARACAS, May 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. has assured the United Nations that it will shield a proposed UN-administered Venezuela humanitarian fund from creditors, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday, removing a key obstacle to getting the money flowing. Representatives of Maduro and the opposition announced agreement on the fund in brief negotiations in Mexico late last year meant to advance efforts to organize free elections in Venezuela. The fund is meant to aid ordinary Venezuelans suffering from economic and humanitarian crises. According to the four sources familiar with the matter, the U.S. notified the UN earlier this month that the funds would be safe from creditors. Dinorah Figuera, head of the Venezuelan opposition's legislature, said the U.S. move "opens the possibility that funds will reach the United Nations and open the door to negotiations."

☆ Title 42 dramatically changed who arrived at U.S.-Mexico border
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Title 42 dramatically changed who arrived at the borderChart showing that before Title 42 began, most people apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border were Mexican, Guatemalan, Slavadorian or Honduran. Title 42 mostly applied to Mexican migrants Mexicans are the nationality most frequently caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and also made up the largest group of quick Title 42 expulsions. With Title 42 in place, Mexican migrants processed under Title 8 dropped, as most were deported to Mexico under Title 42. Chart showing the breakdown of migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador apprehended under Title 8 and Title 42. All four nationalities began to increase once Title 42 began until Title 42 was expanded to include people from Venezuela in October 2022 and people from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua in January 2023.

The number of migrants caught crossing the border illegally since Title 42 ended on Friday dropped sharply from highs last week, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official Blas Nunez-Neto said on a call with reporters. Nunez-Neto said migrants crossing illegally "now face tougher consequences at the border, including a minimum five-year bar on reentry and the potential to be criminally prosecuted if they try again." Title 42 allowed U.S. authorities to expel migrants to Mexico or other countries without the chance to request U.S. asylum. The Biden administration has also expanded legal pathways that allow more people to enter the U.S. without crossing illegally, including the CBP One appointments and applications available abroad for humanitarian parole and refugee status. The number of migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally dropped to an average of 5,000 per day since Title 42 ended, down from daily highs of over 10,000 last week, Nunez-Neto said, cautioning that the situation "is very fluid."

Two dozen National Guard troops quickly set about stretching coils of barbed wire across the cement base of the bridge where the migrants had been. Under the order known as Title 42, U.S. authorities could quickly turn back migrants without giving them a chance to seek asylum. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday said the number of migrants crossing the border fell by half since the end of Title 42. A Dominican couple under the bridge told Reuters they had just reached Ciudad Juarez and had not heard of it. Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Jose Luis Gonzalez in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Migrants trying to cross the border can… Get appointment at border checkpoint Seek humanitarian parole Cross border illegally Few nationalities qualify. ‘Transit ban’ Almost everybody Can you show you’ve been denied asylum in another country on your way to the U.S.? ‘Transit ban’ Can you show you’ve already been denied asylum in another country on your way to the U.S.? ‘Transit ban’ Can you show you’ve been denied asylum in another country on your way to the U.S.? ‘Transit ban’ Can you show you’ve already been denied asylum in another country on your way to the U.S.?

☆ Migrants risk life and limb to jump Mexico trains in rush to border
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Jose Luis Gonzalez | Gustavo Graf | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

I doubt it,” said Romario Solano, 23, a Venezuelan, while waiting for hours in baking sun near the trash-strewn rail tracks in Huehuetoca. For years, mainly Central Americans have crisscrossed Mexico on cargo trains, dubbing them collectively “La Bestia” (The Beast) due to the risk of injury, even death, if they fell off. The latest wave of people aboard “La Bestia” are largely poor Venezuelans, including families with small children, mostly aiming to reach Ciudad Juarez, opposite the Texan city of El Paso. “There are hundreds of people arriving every day,” said migrant activist Guadalupe Gonzalez last week in the central city of Irapuato, where the train makes a stop. “We hadn’t seen so many migrants passing through here like this before.”During the past month, as many as 700 people were trying to board per day, she said.

☆ Biden to take unprecedented measures to manage the border but concerns remain over end of Title 42
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Priscilla Alvarez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —The Biden administration is rolling out unprecedented measures intended to levy consequences against migrants who cross the border unlawfully in the wake of Title 42’s expiration this week. But, officials concede, the high number of border arrests in the coming days will still pose a steep challenge. “This is a really unprecedented moment in the Americas,” a senior administration official said Tuesday. But senior administration officials stress the actions are necessary to encourage people to use lawful pathways to come to the US. When asked by CNN Tuesday what measures authorities are taking to drive down in-custody numbers, the senior administration official said officials are working closely with NGOs and have expanded transportation contracts.

METETÍ, Panama—Five months ago, the Barrios family fled economic calamity in Venezuela along with 7.2 million fellow citizens. In April, they picked up again, this time from the country that had taken them in, Colombia. Unable to get the documentation they needed to legalize their status, Franklin Barrios and Rebeca Herrera joined thousands of other Venezuelans leaving Colombia and trying to make it to the U.S., say migrant advocates and the Venezuelan travelers themselves.

☆ Migrants stranded on Chile-Peru border repatriated to Venezuela
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/3] Undocumented migrants from Venezuela who were in limbo at Chile-Peru border, stand at the airport while they board a special homecoming flight to Venezuela from Arica airport, Chile May 7, 2023. REUTERS/Alexander InfanteSANTIAGO, May 7 (Reuters) - Chile's government said that 115 Venezuelan migrants who had been stranded on the border with Peru were repatriated to Venezuela on a humanitarian flight Sunday. Hundreds of migrants, mostly Venezuelans seeking to return home, had been stranded in the country's northern border after being denied entry into Peru. The incident sparked diplomatic tensions as Peru sent police and soldiers to the border to block migrants. In a statement released Sunday, Chile's Foreign Ministry said the flight was the result of diplomatic efforts with the Venezuelan government and its "Return to the Homeland" plan.

☆ An End to Pandemic Restrictions Could Bring Thousands to the Border
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Miriam Jordan | Michael D. Shear | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Frustration with the app coupled with fear of being stranded in a violent Mexican border city, where migrants have been targeted for extortion and 40 of them died in a blaze at a detention facility last month, has pushed droves to cross the border in recent days at great risk. “The app is a joke; it’s a lie,” said William, 30, who said he had tried to use it again and again. So he decided to turn himself in, only to be expelled three times under Title 42. That morning, at 2:30 a.m., he had made it to El Paso undetected. “We just want to work.”Eileen Sullivan contributed reporting from Washington.

WHAT IS TITLE 42? The COVID restrictions, known as Title 42, were first implemented under Republican then-President Donald Trump in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. The Biden administration intends to lift Title 42 next Thursday when the U.S. COVID public health emergency ends. In April, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended some 183,000 migrants, according to preliminary data provided by Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a 13 percent increase from March. U.S. border cities are bracing for a possible rise in migrants when Title 42 ends.

☆ US to continue humanitarian program after Title 42 end date - joint statement
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MEXICO CITY, May 2 (Reuters) - The United States will continue to accept migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela under a humanitarian program after May 11, when the COVID-19 health policy known as Title 42 is set to end, the U.S. and Mexican governments said on Tuesday. Mexico, for its part, will continue accepting back migrants returned to Mexico on humanitarian grounds, the two countries said in a joint statement. The statement also said the United States would accept some 100,000 people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras under a family reunification program announced last week, but did not give a time frame for that number. The statement came after Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met with White House Homeland Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall on Tuesday to discuss migration ahead Title 42's impending end. Tuesday's announcement indicates that a humanitarian parole program providing legal migration pathways for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans will continue after Title 42's end.

☆ Biden Opens a New Back Door on Immigration
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Miriam Jordan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In adopting the programs for Latin Americans, the Biden administration was responding to widespread criticism over the chaotic situation on the southern border, which last year saw 1.5 million unauthorized crossings. The new parole programs are temporary — most expire after two years, unless they are renewed — but they already are changing the nature of immigrant arrivals. As a result, many have wound up in shelters in cities like New York, which has struggled to accommodate them. Employers with worker shortages are welcoming the arrivals as an important new labor pool. Average weekly apprehensions declined to 46 in late February from 1,231 in early January, when some of the parole measures were announced.

☆ New migrant caravan heads for Mexico City to speed up legal route to US
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Lizbeth Diaz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Migrants take part in a caravan towards Mexico City called 'The Migrant's Via Crucis' in memory of the 40 migrants who died during a fire at a migrant detention center in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, as they walk along the road en route to Viva Mexico, Chiapas state, Mexico April 23, 2023. The migrants, mostly Venezuelans, started their march north early in Tapachula, the city bordering Guatemala whose detention centers have been overwhelmed by their vast numbers. Some said they expected to reach Mexico City in about 10 days. Fleeing violence and poverty in Central America, thousands of migrants walk together for safety to Mexico each year, crossing several states in hopes of finding a legal route into the United States. Out of money, he said his family was hoping to speed up the legal process needed for onward travel in Mexico City.

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