Large groups of Venezuelan migrants are swamping Eagle Pass, Texas.
Nearly 3,380 kilometres southeast of the border city of 28,000 people, record numbers of migrants are trekking through the Darién Gap, the dense jungle separating South America from Panama, to get to the U.S.
On Wednesday, the Biden administration said 470,000 Venezuelans already in the U.S. would be granted permission to work. Some migrants and government officials said would encourage even more Venezuelans to make the journey.
Up to 20 September a record 386,000 migrants, almost two-thirds of them Venezuelans, had crossed through Panama, compared with 248,000 in all of 2022.
About 7.7 million Venezuelans have left their country in the past decade, making them the world’s biggest refugee group ahead of Ukrainians and Syrians.
A third of Venezuelan households rely on dollar remittances to survive, according to the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington.
Some Venezuelans said the permission to work was a welcoming sign. ‘I read about it this morning and it made me want to take a trip there’, said Carlos Daniel Finol, a 25-year-old Venezuelan kitchen worker in Bogotá. ‘Before I had doubts about going, but seeing this news, I’m wondering about the steps I should take’.
‘The latest measures by the U.S. government represent another pull factor’, Enrique Valenzuela, head of the migration agency of northern Chihuahua state. He said the Biden administration’s move to extend Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans will likely encourage more migration.
The Mexican government registered a record 72,000 migrants in July going north, up from 58,000 in June according to the National Migration Institute. The largest group in July was Venezuelans.
U.S. and Mexico can’t deport most Venezuelans because their government won’t accept deportation flights.