The expulsion of 80 Venezuelan migrants into Mexico by the United States government has been denounced as ”a scam” on social media. Among those expelled, there is a group of people who had recently crossed the Rio Grande in the hopes of entering the United States, and their situation had received substantial media coverage at that time.
According to messages and videos circulating on social media, US immigration authorities deceived the Venezuelan migrants. They had been offered the possibility of being transferred to a safe place where they would be allowed to remain in the US.
However, the migrants ”had already been processed and were then relocated to an ICE detention center,” as lawyer Rolando Vásquez, an immigration specialist, expressed on Instagram. Vásquez describes himself in his Instagram profile as El Ángel de la Frontera—the guardian angel of the frontier—a nickname he has acquired through his victories in his Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) legal cases.
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The lawyer’s post includes a video in which some of the 80 Venezuelan migrants can be heard complaining about their situation. They report having been stripped of their money, luggage and passports, before being expelled into Mexico through the El Paso border point.
https://twitter.com/PajarracoTv/status/1403118990013124608
The social media post further informs that the group of people in question were transferred by bus and plane to El Paso and ”were left at the border without their documents or their belongings.” The post adds that the people were taken to the border under false pretences that they would later be released and allowed to remain in the US.
Under false pretenses
As one can remember very well that for several days, various media outlets had circulated the photographs of the group of Venezuelans who had crossed the Rio Grande and broadcast numerous segments on the issue, calling the Venezuelan government responsible for the situation, as part of the international smear campaign against the government.
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The conflictive border that separates Mexico from the United States stretches for 3,100 kilometers and is one of the busiest illegal migrant corridors in the world. Now it is also witness to the plight of these Venezuelans who were sent back to Mexico.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CP5ox9ZFZb0/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=2030ecfb-0c07-4869-910a-213b8460f96a
Most of the migrants trying to cross the Mexico-US border and enter the United States either legally or illegally are from the Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. People of these countries are fleeing dangerous situations of crimes and high unemployment, a condition generated by decades of coups and destabilization efforts carried out by the US government itself.
Featured image: People in line at a Mexico-US frontier pass. File photo.
(RedRadioVe) by José Manuel Blanco Díaz, with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/GMS/SC
José Manuel Blanco Diaz
Vice President of the Radio Miraflores Foundation |radiomiraflores.net.ve | Presenter of | UCV Social Communication | UCV announcer
