Deported by Joe Biden and imprisoned by Nicolás Maduro: the saga of immigrants arriving in the United States without documents

Pedro Naranjo idolized his father when he was a boy and followed him into the Venezuelan air force to fly helicopters. Their bond was so deep that when Major Naranjo He feared going to prison for conspiring against the socialist government of Nicolás Madurofather and son fled together to the United States.

Now, the two have been separated by an overloaded US immigration system that has left retired general Pedro Naranjo in a legal limbo in the United States.

His loyal son, a lieutenant in the Venezuelan air force, is in a Venezuelan military prison after being deported by Joe Biden’s government as part of an attempt to discourage asylum seekers from the turbulent South American country.

“We never had a plan B,” Naranjo Sr. said in a telephone interview from Houston. He was released after 10 days in US custody and is now awaiting the outcome of his asylum request.

“We never thought that the United States, as an ally of democracy in the world and of the Venezuelan opposition, as a country that protects human rights and freedoms, could do what they did with my son,” she said.

The Venezuelan diaspora It is one of the most perplexing challenges related to immigration that await the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, who will visit Mexico City this Wednesday to discuss with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador the unprecedented arrivals at the United States border.

Last year, Mexico ended a policy that did not require visas for Venezuelans traveling to its territory and was a free pass for those seeking asylum in the United States.

Once they reached a Mexican border town, Venezuelans could cross the border on foot in broad daylight and surrender to U.S. agents, thus avoiding the dangers of crossing into Mexico and other countries by land.

Restriction of flights to Mexico encouraged walk through the dangerous Darien region. This year more than half a million migrants, mostly Venezuelans, have passed through the dense rainforest on the border between Colombia and Panama.

The resumption, for the first time in years, of deportation flights from the United States to Venezuela – 10 since October, according to Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight data – has failed to stop the increase .

Venezuelans were arrested more than 85,000 times while crossing the border illegally in October and November, the second most after Mexicans.

Little is known about what happens to deportees once they return to their country. However, critics and members of South Florida’s close-knit community of Venezuelan exiles have criticized the Biden administration for overlooking the grave dangers deportees like Naranjo face.

Last week, a group calling itself Independent Venezuelan American Citizens joined with Miami Republican Congressman Carlos Jimenez to denounce the deportation and subsequent arrest of Naranjo Jr. at the hands of Maduro.

He said he sent a request to the White House on Dec. 12 asking to block the deportation but received no response. On Dec. 14, after failing to quash a deportation order issued by an asylum official, Naranjo Jr. was deported, according to his father.

Ernesto Ackerman, a member of the group, declared that the deportation was equivalent to sending an American drug agent into the hands of a drug cartel.

“It’s like taking a DEA agent and sending him to Chapo Guzmán,” Ackerman said, referring to Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. “I don’t see any difference.”

Relations between Washington and Caracas

Naranjo’s deportation comes amid US attempts to improve relations with Caracas after Donald Trump’s government’s “maximum pressure” campaign failed to topple Maduro.

In November, the White House eased oil sanctions on the OPEC nation to support nascent negotiations between Maduro and his opponents over guarantees for next year’s presidential election.

And last week, Biden announced a presidential pardon to free from prison a key Maduro ally held for more than three years on money laundering charges in the United States.

Neither the White House nor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have commented on the Naranjos’ situation.

The father-son saga began in 2018, when General Naranjo was arrested along with a handful of other officers on charges of plotting to assassinate Maduro, sow chaos and disrupt Venezuela’s presidential election that year. Naranjo denies involvement in the barracks riot dubbed “Operation Armageddon” by Maduro, but was nevertheless subjected to a military tribunal, along with other alleged conspirators, on charges including rebellion and treason.

In 2021, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Naranjo was hospitalized after suffering a stroke in prison. Under international pressure from Maduro’s opponents, including the head of the Organization of American States, he was allowed to serve his sentence at home.

When the government decided to extend the sentences of its defendants, he feared that his house arrest would be revoked and that he would be incarcerated again. He decided to flee at the end of 2022, and his son, who he said never conspired against Maduro’s government, joined him to ensure he arrived safely.

“His only crime was being a good son,” said María Elena Machado, who has seen her son in prison twice since he returned.

The two were first to cross the border into Colombia, home to more than 4 million Venezuelans who have fled their homes since 2016. But with a Maduro ally in power – Gustavo Petro – and Marxist rebels still lurking in the countryside, the two They felt unsafe, so they decided to make the dangerous journey on foot through the Darien jungle to the United States. On October 4, they crossed the Rio Grande near Brownsville, Texas, and They surrendered to the US Border Patrol.

Illegal crossing from Mexico has exposed the Naranjo to stricter standards for passing initial asylum screenings.

A rule introduced in May applies the higher standard to anyone who crosses the border illegally after crossing into another country, such as Mexico, without seeking protection there. Migrants must also use one of the Biden administration’s new legal routes to asylum, such as a new mobile app for appointments at official crossings.

Illegal crossings by several nationalities, including Venezuelans, decreased after the rule was introduced, but the reduction was short-lived.

It is unclear why the asylum request was rejected by Naranjo Jr. His father said he appealed to a federal immigration judge in Pearsall, Texas, the asylum officer’s initial determination that he would not face retaliation if he returned to Venezuela, but he lost.

Naranjo Jr. did not have a lawyer throughout the trial, according to his father. Asylum seekers have the right to call their lawyers before conducting interviews, but many advocates complain that detainees receive little notice, often during off-hours, and are unable to find help.

Venezuelans who pass the screening fare relatively well before immigration judges. According to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Information Office, the asylum grant rate was 72% in the government fiscal year ending Sept. 30, compared to 52% for all nationalities.

Upon arrival in Venezuela, Naranjo Jr. was arrested again on charges of desertion. He is currently detained in the military prison on the outskirts of Caracas together with several government opponents.

Meanwhile, migration experts warn that other Venezuelans deserving of asylum could suffer the same fate.

“This is not a surprise,” Julio Henríquez, an immigration lawyer of Venezuelan origin, said in Boston. “It had to happen sooner or later.”

Source: AP