SCOTT SIMON, HOST: The Biden administration announced an agreement with Mexico this week to try to reduce the record number of Venezuelan migrants crossing the border illegally. The deal includes a new legal pathway for some Venezuelans if they can find a financial sponsor in the U.S. And for many Venezuelans, that just won’t be easy. NPR’s Joel Rose covers immigration and joins us.
By WLRN – Joel Rose
Oct 15, 2022
Joel, thanks so much for being with us.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Hi, Scott.
SIMON: Let’s begin with the new agreement. What does it mean for people trying to flee Venezuela?
ROSE: That will depend a lot on their individual circumstances. On one hand, it will create a legal pathway for certain Venezuelans who can qualify. On the other hand, it means that many other migrants will be expelled back to Mexico if they crossed the border illegally. Until now, the administration could not expel Venezuelan migrants under the pandemic border restrictions known as Title 42 because México was refusing to take them in. And the U.S. can’t send them back to Venezuela, either, because that government won’t accept them.
So the Biden administration had mostly been releasing Venezuelans into the U.S, where they could apply for asylum. But that had prompted very loud criticism from Republican governors who have been sending thousands of these migrants north in buses to cities run by Democratic mayors, especially New York, which has had a hard time absorbing these migrants.
SIMON: And, Joel, of course, we’ve heard so much about those buses, and maybe not as much about the people who’ve been on them. We’re going to listen now to one story that you’ve brought us about a migrant family in New York.
ROSE: Yeah. NPR has been following one couple who first arrived in New York City back in August. Their names are Victor Villegas and Milagros Pineda. And like many of the Venezuelan migrants arriving now, they didn’t have any family or friends anywhere in the U.S.
(SOUNDBITE OF HELICOPTER)
VICTOR VILLEGAS: (Speaking Spanish).
ROSE: Villegas says, they came to New York because they didn’t know where else to go, and they heard good things about the city from other migrants at a shelter in Texas. Their bus arrived on a Sunday.
VILLEGAS: (Speaking Spanish).
ROSE: Villegas and Pineda tried to go to a homeless shelter for couples, but they were turned away because they’re not legally married, and they needed some paperwork that they couldn’t get until Monday.
VILLEGAS: (Speaking Spanish).
ROSE: “We basically felt lost,” Villegas says, “without money and in the streets.” Luckily, they did have the phone number of some volunteers who had met their bus in New York.
VILLEGAS: (Speaking Spanish).
ROSE: They let Villegas and Pineda stay with them until the couple could get their paperwork issues fixed so at least they wouldn’t have to sleep on the street.
ROSE: We met Villegas and Pineda this week in a park near the homeless shelter where they’re staying, next to an elevated subway line on a gritty block in Brooklyn. In many ways, they are still lost. They don’t have work permits. They don’t understand the immigration system. They have been able to work a little bit. Villegas has done some demolition, while Pineda is occasionally cleaning houses, but it’s not enough.
VILLEGAS: (Speaking Spanish).
ROSE: “We are alone,” Villegas says, “trying to figure things out.” Immigration experts say a lot of Venezuelan migrants are having the same experience.
ANDREW SELEE: They’re starting over in very precarious circumstances because they don’t have the social networks in the United States that other migrants generally do.
ROSE: Andrew Selee is the president of the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute in Washington. He says the latest wave of Venezuelan migrants is very different from Mexican and Central American migrants who’ve come before, who usually know someone in the U.S. before they arrive.
SELEE: They know who’s couch they’re going to sleep on. They know who’s going to help them try and get their first job, or maybe has already gotten that first job for them. The Venezuelans don’t seem to be part of that planned migration.
ROSE: This mass migration of Venezuelans is relatively new for the U.S., but it’s been happening for years in Latin America. U.S. officials say nearly eight million people have left Venezuela, more than a quarter of the population, as the country’s economy has collapsed under its authoritarian government and the impact of U.S. sanctions.
VILLEGAS: (Speaking Spanish).
ROSE: “We endured so much,” says Victor Villegas. “We tried to make things work in Venezuela, but we couldn’t.” There is no U.S. Embassy in Venezuela, so the couple sold their car and possessions and headed north on foot. There have been some good moments in New York. Last week, the couple reunited with their kids, who are 20 and 21 and had been living in Peru for the last few years. Now they’re all together in the same hotel that’s serving as a homeless shelter.
MILAGROS PINEDA: (Speaking Spanish).
ROSE: “We have a microwave, a small fridge and a TV,” Pineda says.
DANIEL: (Speaking Spanish).
ROSE: “There are lots of channels,” jokes 20-year-old Danielle, but none in Spanish. The couple dreams about someday having jobs like the ones they left behind in Valencia, Venezuela, about two hours west of Caracas. Villegas owned a small soccer academy, and Pineda cooked in a restaurant.
VILLEGAS: (Speaking Spanish).
ROSE: But they say finding work in the U.S. is harder than they expected. Everyone they know here is just like them – new arrivals.
VILLEGAS: (Speaking Spanish).
ROSE: “I can’t help them, and they can’t help us,” Villegas says. “We can only compare the experiences we are going through.”
SIMON: And, Joel, the Biden administration’s new legal pathway for some Venezuelan migrants – how exactly would that work?
ROSE: The administration says it will accept 24,000 Venezuelans into this new program, which is not a lot when you consider that more Venezuelans than that have been arriving at the border every month. And there are some very strict requirements. Migrants have to apply from abroad. If they cross the border illegally, they’re disqualified. And they need a financial sponsor in the U.S. who can support them. But the reality is, that’s going to be a major obstacle for most of the migrants coming from Venezuela right now, who simply don’t have family or friends in the U.S. who can do that.
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Read More: WLRN – Many Venezuelan migrants will not qualify for the legal pathway set up to help them enter the U.S.
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