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Venezuela Halts Deportation Flights From US
Hotair ^ | 02/25/2024 | Jazz Shaw

Posted on 02/25/2024 9:24:08 PM PST by SeekAndFind

Of the nearly nine million illegal migrants that Joe Biden has allowed into the United States since taking office, a significant percentage of them came here from Venezuela. There were 50.000 of them just in the month of September, setting a record that still stands today. The vast majority of them were simply allowed to stay, receiving court dates to make their asylum claims as much as a decade in the future. But to his credit, Biden managed to have a small number of the worst of the worst rounded up from time to time and put on planes to fly back to their native country. That process began last October after an informal agreement was reached between the White House and Nicolas Maduro. But now the flights have ended after Biden reimposed some sanctions on Venezuela over its failure to proceed with fair and open elections. Maduro ordered a ban on deportation flights and there are few signs that this will change in the near future. So what do we do with the migrants now? (Wall Street Journal, subscription required.)

Venezuela has followed through on a threat to stop accepting flights of migrants deported from the U.S. and Mexico, people familiar with the measures say, adding pressure on President Biden as a surge in illegal migration becomes a key issue in this year’s presidential election.

President Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian regime introduced the measure after Washington reimposed some of the economic sanctions it had previously lifted on Venezuela. The U.S. said that Caracas has failed to live up to the loose pledges it made to restore the democratic order and move toward holding fair presidential elections. Venezuela has also asserted a claim to a resource-rich region of neighboring Guyana, drawing further warnings from the U.S.

The almost weekly flights from the U.S. to Venezuela came to a stop in late January, U.S. officials said, after an initial deal was struck in October. The chances of restarting them now appear bleak as relations between the two sides deteriorate, according to people involved in the discussions.

We already had sanctions in place against Venezuela under the Trump administration. In fact, Trump didn't even recognize Nicolas Maduro as the president of the country, instead giving the nod to Juan Guaido, who was named interim president by the legislature until they removed that honor in December of 2022. Maduro simply ignored the vote and continued running the country as a dictator, still doing so today. Joe Biden lifted those sanctions upon taking office but has now reimposed some of them. This sort of inconsistent, unsteady leadership leads to unpredictable results such as the one we're seeing here.

This is, however, one of those foreign policy situations where all of the blame can't be placed on Biden's shoulders. Maduro is a thug and he's not an ally of the United States or the West. He has fostered much closer relationships with Russia, China, and Iran in recent years. Expecting him to help us address the Biden border crisis would be a fool's errand.

So what other options are available in terms of expelling all of these illegal aliens, specifically the ones from Venezuela? Joe Biden would probably welcome the chance to take this as an excuse to simply allow them all to stay. hoping to eventually convert them into newly minted Democrat voters. But whether he makes a good-faith effort to deport some of them or we have to wait for Trump (hopefully) to do it, a solution is required. 

Ignoring Maduro's order and attempting to land commercial airlines in Caracas anyway isn't really an option. He would likely order the planes to be seized and we would wind up with the crew becoming even more American hostages for him to hold. But there are other options on the table. We're still somehow maintaining fairly good relations with Colombia. We could land planeloads of migrants in Bogata and simply hand them their walking papers. It's only about 150 miles from there to the Venezuelan border. Anyone who was able to survive the trek all the way through Central America and Mexico to illegally enter our country should be able to make the trip without too many issues. And even if they just turned around and headed north again, they would at least be somebody else's problem for a while.

I'm not getting my hopes up that Joe Biden will suddenly change course and do the right thing when it comes to the migrant crisis. It's simply not in his character to do so. At most, he'll apply a little window dressing with a vague executive order in response to his disastrous polling numbers and the growing popularity of Donald Trump. Meanwhile, we remain overwhelmed and the people of Venezuela struggle under the heavy hand of their dictator with no honest elections on the horizon. It's a very sad situation.



TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aliens; deportation; flights; maduro; venezuela
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To: Repeal The 17th

Zactly! Mexico, and their drug cartel rulers have allowed this scourge of locusts safe passage to get here to pillage this country-— why should we be responsible for returning them to the four corners of the earth, dump them off in Mexico and build that damn wall with the saved transport money. Perhaps if it cost Mexico to feed them or deport them back home, they won’t be so accommodating in the future. If Americans go to Mexico without permission to enter, or overstay, or travel beyond the stated destination-— they fine the hell out of us or throw us in jail. Time to take the gloves off dealing with our greedy neighbor.


21 posted on 02/26/2024 2:47:11 AM PST by Segovia
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To: SeekAndFind

This is a no brainer...give them parachutes.


22 posted on 02/26/2024 4:30:13 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Proudly Clinging To My Guns And My Religion)
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To: SeekAndFind

In the words of Odumbo, never underestimate the ability of Joe to EFF things up!!

He is cutting his own throat by implementing sanctions that are designed to make it look like he cares about “democracy”...if only he cared about America’s Constitutional Republic, as much as he cares about the rest of the world’s “democracy”!!


23 posted on 02/26/2024 4:36:32 AM PST by ExTxMarine (Finish the Wall and Deport them All!)
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To: Fai Mao

It may be time to nuke the ruling government of Venezuela.


24 posted on 02/26/2024 4:43:31 AM PST by Machavelli (True God)
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To: SeekAndFind

Place sanctions on them, freeze all financial assets they have in the US and AID money they have coming. Hit them with a financial sledge hammer like trump would.


25 posted on 02/26/2024 5:07:55 AM PST by elpadre
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To: SeekAndFind

I agree with several of the posts above. No free ride back home, just put them back over whatever border they crossed to get here, whether Mexico or Canada, and let them find their own way home, or to hell.


26 posted on 02/26/2024 5:08:29 AM PST by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: SeekAndFind

Do a flyover and throw their asses out over Venezuela wearing parachutes. We don’t want your garbage either!


27 posted on 02/26/2024 5:29:34 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (John Oliver is a racist liberal biatch.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Bring back the Higgins boats...


28 posted on 02/26/2024 5:34:47 AM PST by null and void (I identify as a conspiracy theorist. My personal pronouns are told/you/so.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I don’t believe he deported ANY significant number of any illegal criminals.


29 posted on 02/26/2024 5:46:11 AM PST by LS
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To: SeekAndFind

They came into the USA from Mexico.

Deport them back to Mexico.


30 posted on 02/26/2024 5:53:40 AM PST by Iron Munro (AMERICA - LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT !)
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To: Fai Mao

Sounds like a job for Gitmo. Or maybe dump them in Somalia.

Too small, too far, too expansive - the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific are just a short hop away. Dump them there. Let the libs scream.


31 posted on 02/26/2024 6:39:34 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: SeekAndFind

Trump should view this as an act of war by Venezuela.


32 posted on 02/26/2024 6:43:02 AM PST by Socon-Econ (adi)
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To: PGR88

Agree!

Ship them far, far away.


33 posted on 02/26/2024 6:43:39 AM PST by Jane Long (What we were told was a conspiracy theory in ‘20 is now fact. Land of the sheep, home of the knaves)
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To: SeekAndFind

Venezuela empty’s prisons Biden has cheap labor it’s a done deal no backing out.


34 posted on 02/26/2024 7:58:39 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: SeekAndFind

Back 50 years ago Americans weren't such pearl clutching pussified wimps.

They called a spade a spade, a shovel a shovel and a Wetback a Wetback.


35 posted on 02/26/2024 11:05:06 AM PST by Iron Munro (AMERICA - LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT !)
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To: Ex-Con777

“Marthas Vineyard. I hear there is an opening for a chef there”...

My vote is for Sentinel Islands.


36 posted on 02/27/2024 5:27:58 AM PST by Does so ( 🇺🇦...Motels for Migrants give legitimate addresses for mail-in ballots.)
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