U.S. Border Officials are starting to wonder about the sudden spike of Venezuelan immigrants coming to U.S. borders. What’s going on in Venezuela that caused so many citizens to make an attempt to illegally cross into the states?
After so many years of constant economic struggle, more than 7 million Venezuelans have fled their country due to a dangerous political and economic crisis. Currently, it is one of the largest displacement issues in the world. As of September of 2023, Venezuela has approximately the largest amount of externally displaced refugees in the world with a high estimate of 7,710,887.
The economy crashed due to a malfunction of the oil sector led by President Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela since 2013. The typical nurse would get paid only around $5 a month, along with $40 for food and an extra $30 as monthly bonuses as a effort to fight back against the “economic war.”
Andrew Seele, the president of the Migration Policy Institute, said to CBS News, “It’s really a survival migration from Venezuela. Some of it is political persecution, but most of it is just basic nutrition and health care and public services that have collapsed. It’s a societal collapse.”
In July, 2023, U.S. Border Patrol agents managed to catch approximately 20,500 Venezuelan immigrants who entered through the U.S. border illegally. In August, it was nearly a 93% increase with about 42,630 Venezuelans. The number of illegal border crossings only continues to grow as of September.
“It’s easy to forget that these innocent people are fleeing from a difficult situation and ended up leaving behind a lot of family members.” said Wayne Hills student, Sarah Park. “From what I can understand, this economic-slash-political crisis has been happening for a lot of years.”
Even now, life is not looking much better back in South America. Although food and medicine are more available, most citizens aren’t able to afford them. In the midst of all this chaos and confusion, public hospitals are now overwhelmed and lack the basic medical supplies needed.
It seems that life has gotten better for only a select few of those living in Venezuela. Former middle-class families now must resort to desperate measures such as waiting in line for hours on end for gasoline, or even having to begging for money to treat fatal cancers and other life-threatening, yet preventable, conditions.
