The White House defended this Tuesday the controversial deportation to Colombia of undocumented Venezuelan migrants and assured that it hopes to carry out this type of return “on a regular basis” from now on.
In her daily press conference, the spokeswoman for the United States Government, Jen Psaki, confirmed that “Venezuelans who had resided in that South American country and who ” tried to enter the United States irregularly “began to be repatriated” to Colombia .
“What we are trying to do is ensure that Venezuelans who came from a third country (Colombia), return to that country,” said the press secretary, who added that there will be more flights of this type.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS, in English) reported that on January 27, two Venezuelan migrants were deported to Colombian territory who, according to President Iván Duque, had resided in the country but did not have temporary protection status, but rather a residence permit. transit.
This repatriation, the first of Venezuelans to Colombia, was carried out through Title 42, a policy established by the Administration of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) and maintained by that of Joe Biden that allows migrants to be quickly expelled due to the covid pandemic. -19.
The White House, which hopes to continue with new expulsions of Venezuelans to Colombia, stated that ” those who do not have legal status to remain in the United States will be deported .”
Given the controversy that arose, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democrat Bob Menéndez, described the deportations of migrants to third countries as “extremely worrying” on Tuesday, and asked that they stop resorting to Title 42.
“By continuing to use one of Trump’s worst immigration policies, this Administration is turning its back on the immigrants who most need our protection,” he said in a statement.
While the United States government claimed to have held “conversations” with Colombia on the matter, Vice President and Foreign Minister Marta Lucía Ramírez denied having closed an agreement with Washington for the deportation of 6,000 Venezuelan migrants to Colombia.
Ramírez assured that the cases of deportation of Venezuelans who have Temporary Protection Status in Colombia will be analyzed “case by case.”
“If they are under the protection statute, but they don’t want to live in Colombia anymore, it doesn’t make sense for them to be deported because we can’t force them to live in our country,” said the vice president of Colombia, which houses more than 1.7 million of Venezuelans.
For their part, the representatives in Washington of the Venezuelan opponent Juan Guaidó, recognized by the White House as “interim president”, urged the United States to allow “Venezuelan migrants to present their asylum applications.”