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US News

Migrants kicked out of US are erecting huge tent city on Mexican border in hopes of re-entering

By
MaryAnn Martinez
Published Oct. 27, 2022
Updated Oct. 28, 2022, 1:17 a.m. ET

Migrants kicked out of the US are amassing on the Mexican side of the border, erecting a tent city while waiting for another chance to enter the US.  

“We’re all waiting for an opportunity to cross,” Gilfred Jimenez, a Venezuelan who has not yet attempted to enter the US but intends to, told the El Paso Times.

Jimenez is living in a tent city that has sprung up in Juarez, the Mexican city directly across the border from El Paso, Texas. The encampment is made up of both Venezuelans rejected at the border and Venezuelans who were on their way to the US but had not reached the border before President Joe Biden made a major announcement Oct. 13.

The Biden Administration said it would begin expelling Venezuelans, even those seeking asylum, from the US if they entered the country illegally at the Southern border.  A record number of Venezuelans– 189,000 crossed the southern border of the US– as people fled the dictatorship and economic uncertainty.  

Since that time, about 1,800 Venezuelans have been returned to Mexico– finding themselves penniless in Juárez, its Mexican sister city, according to the El Paso paper.

About 1,800 Venezuelans have been expelled from El Paso, Texas to Juarez, Mexico since Oct. 12. The tents pictured on the left side of the river are in Juarez, Mexico. The Rio Grande divides Mexico, and El Paso, Texas is the right side of the river.
About 1,800 Venezuelans have been expelled from El Paso, Texas to Juarez, Mexico since Oct. 12. REUTERS
Venezuelan migrants, some expelled from the U.S. to Mexico under Title 42 and others who have not yet crossed after the new immigration policies, camp on the banks of the Rio Bravo river, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico October 26, 2022.
Venezuelan migrants, some expelled from the US to Mexico under Title 42 and others who have not yet crossed after the new immigration policies, camp on the banks of the Rio Bravo river. REUTERS

Tents are huddled together and housing dozens of Venezuelans, who used blankets and broken furniture to fortify the makeshift shelters. The ejected migrants used what little they have to send messages to the world, making an “SOS” out of rocks and displaying a banner that reads, “Joe Biden, Venezuela needs you.”

Venezuelan asylum seekers in Juarez, Mexico had been sleeping outside in the elements, but are now using tents, blankets and anything else they can get their hands on to protect themselves from rain and cold in the desert climate near the US-Mexico border.
Venezuelan asylum seekers in Juarez, Mexico had been sleeping outside in the elements, but are now using tents, blankets and anything else they can get their hands on to protect themselves from the elements. REUTERS

It’s unclear how many Venezuelans who cross the border are being expelled, and under which criteria.

“They never told us why we were being sent back but some Venezuelan men who crossed behind us got to stay,” Angie Pina told The Post earlier this month.

A banner near the Venezuelans tent city in Juarez, Mexico reads, "Joe Biden, Venezuela needs you," in Spanish.
A banner near the Venezuelans tent city in Juarez, Mexico reads, “Joe Biden, Venezuela needs you,” in Spanish. REUTERS

Pina was expelled from the US, but The Post witnessed as she illegally crossed back into the US for another attempt at gaining asylum.

As part of the Oct. 13 policy change, Mexico agreed to take Venezuelans rejected from the US, which it had previously refused to do.

Those waiting on the Mexican side of the border are issued 180-day visas by the government. It is unclear what will happen to them after that.

The migrants are camped out just across the Rio Grande from where the US Patrol has an outdoor immigrant processing center in El Paso, Texas.
The migrants camped out just across the Rio Grande from where the US Patrol has an outdoor immigrant processing center in El Paso, Texas. AFP via Getty Images

In hopes of discouraging illegal crossings at the border, the Biden administration announced it will grant 24,000 Venezuelans humanitarian entry if they apply online and arrive via air — rather by crossing the land border as hundreds of thousands have been doing, with El Paso, Texas, alone recording up to 2,100 migrants in a single day.

Most Venezuelans who have been expelled told The Post they would try to enter the country since they had no money to return to their homeland and most sold everything they owned and borrowed money to make the trek to the US.

Most people who arrive come in pockets, groups who have sold their valuables and borrowed money and then pooled it to get to the US. Having made the journey with no passport and having no money for transport home, they less likely to turn back – and more likely to turn to ruthless cartels to be smuggled over.

“If they don’t allow us back in, we will go back in — legally or illegally,” another Venezuelan, who did not want to give his identity, previously told The Post.

There were 189,000 Venezuelans encountered on the border in the 2022 fiscal year.
There were 189,000 Venezuelans encountered on the border in the 2022 fiscal year. REUTERS

In the 2022 fiscal year, Border Patrol set a record of 2.38 million people stopped at the southern land border — a huge increase from other recent years, with far less than 1m encounters recorded in both 2019 and 2020. Although it is difficult to estimate the number of illegal border crossers, estimates have run as high as 600,000 in the past year.