De la Espriella announces tighter migrant controls in Colombia
Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella has ordered the detention and deportation of migrants who are in the country with irregular status or have committed crimes. The Guardian reports.
Police and migration service operations
According to de la Espriella, the first joint operations by the police and migration service are set to begin as early as this week. The president said that authorities would primarily seek migrants who commit crimes, as well as those who have not regularized their status and will be subject to immediate deportation.
He made the statement during a government meeting in Barranquilla. De la Espriella, who has held office for just over two weeks, echoed US President Donald Trump’s “America first” rhetoric, saying that from now on Colombians would come first, second and third.
The announcement came amid the aftermath of the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck on August 10. According to the publication, more than 300 people were killed in the disaster, while over 30,000 homes were destroyed.
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Criticism and resource concerns
The initiative has drawn criticism from the opposition and human rights advocates. They believe it could end a migration policy that had been in place for more than 10 years under both right-wing and left-wing governments and primarily benefited people who left Venezuela because of the humanitarian crisis.
Venezuelans account for about 90% of all migrants in Colombia. Of the 2.8 million Venezuelan citizens living in the country, approximately 848,000 have irregular status, including 193,000 children and adolescents.
Senator María José Pizarro Rodríguez compared the presidential initiative to the possible creation of a Colombian equivalent of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, ICE. She called the order to deport migrants with irregular status a manifestation of xenophobia and aporophobia, and urged authorities to regularize their status instead.
According to Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, sources at the migration agency believe the service lacks sufficient staff to carry out the promised operations. Analysts also note that Colombian legislation does not contain a category of “illegal migrant”: staying in the country without proper documents is not a crime, and such people are classified as migrants with irregular status.
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