Some 300 Venezuelans set up a camp on the banks of the Rio Grande on Wednesday, right on the border between Mexico and the United States, appealing for the compassion of the US authorities who restricted their access to the country two weeks ago.
“We come here with the purpose of entering so that they give us the opportunity to work (…) ask God to help us, to help us and soften the heart of the president” Joe Biden, María Salcedo told AFP , Venezuelan, 36 years old.
An immigration agreement between Washington and Mexico, announced on October 12, determined that only 24,000 Venezuelans will be able to enter the United States through a formal request and by air, while those who cross the border illegally will be returned to Mexican territory.
Since Tuesday night, the South Americans arrived loaded with their belongings and tents that they were setting up during the early hours, despite the cold of the desert Ciudad Juárez, neighbor of the American El Paso.
Venezuelans unfurled banners with messages such as “Joe Biden, Venezuela needs you” or “SOS Venezuela, we are fleeing the dictatorship,” hoping they would be read by US immigration agents.
“We decided (…) to come here, because this is where the pressure is, this is where Immigration is, this is where we can make some force,” explained Cristian, 21, who traveled for a month from his country to the extreme north of Mexico.
The young man asks that Biden put “his hand on his heart” and let them enter to look for work and “not be here begging for food.”
The camp is located right across from a temporary operations post that the Border Patrol set up in September in light of the growing influx of Venezuelans.
Men, women with children and some families crossed on foot through the narrow riverbed to surrender to immigration agents and seek asylum in the United States, AFP found.
In Mexico City, meanwhile, more than a hundred Venezuelans voluntarily returned to their country this Wednesday on a special flight whose cost per ticket was about 210 dollars.
Julio Caballero, 32 years old and father of two children, left his native Maracaibo on September 19, but just upon arriving in Mexico he learned of the new immigration provisions.
“I decided not to go to the border (with the United States) because I already had the experience of other colleagues who were expelling them (…) I decided better to return to my country, my family is there,” he told AFP moments before boarding. the flight to Caracas.
Also in the Mexican capital, activists protested in front of the Foreign Ministry demanding humanitarian responses for the Venezuelan exodus in Mexico.
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AFP
