Venezuelan Migrants Set Sights on U.S.

Obstacles to getting legal residency in Colombia are prompting thousands of Venezuelans to U.S. as Title 42 ends. More than 2.5 million Venezuelans have settled in Colombia since Venezuela began a long slide that saw its economy contract by 80% under President Nicolás Maduro, whose 10-year rule has been marked by rights abuses, mismanagement and corruption. Thousands of those Venezuelans have in recent months opted to move on, groups that work with migrants say, along with Venezuelans who left their country directly for the U.S. Nearly 95,000 Venezuelans made their way to the U.S. in the first six months of fiscal 2023 through March 31, only behind Mexico, Cuba and Nicaragua. Nearly 42,000 of the Venezuelans were apprehended at the southwest border, with another 19,000 processed through that border’s legal ports of entry. Venezuelans traveling to the southwest border do so by foot or bus from South America because they cannot access visas to hopscotch the region by plane.