A Bitter Homecoming: Trump's Crackdown Ends American Dream for Venezuelan Migrants
The Trump administration's immigration crackdown is forcing thousands of Venezuelan migrants to abandon their American dream and return home to face poverty and uncertainty. A look at their bittersweet Christmas.
This wasn't the Christmas Mariela Gomez imagined a year ago. For her and thousands of other Venezuelan migrants, Donald Trump's return to the White House in January marked the end of their American dream.
According to the Associated Press, Gomez found herself spending the holiday in northern Venezuela for the first time in eight years. She dressed up and got her son a scooter, but she couldn't ignore the primary challenges facing returning migrants: unemployment and poverty. “We had a modest dinner, not quite what we’d hoped for,” Gomez said, explaining they couldn't afford the traditional Christmas dish of hallacas.
The End of a Dream
Gomez and her family returned to the city of Maracay on October 27 after a brief, harrowing attempt to enter the United States. After crossing the US-Mexico border into Texas, they were quickly detained by US Border Patrol amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. They were deported to Mexico, where they began the dangerous journey back home.
She was among the more than 7.7 million Venezuelans who fled their country in the last decade as its economy unraveled. After years in Colombia and Peru, she set her sights on the US, but Trump's second term dashed those hopes.
A Steady Stream of Deportations
Figures from Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica show that as of September, more than 14,000 migrants have returned to South America. Separately, after President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, under White House pressure, reversed his policy of not accepting deportees from the US, direct deportation flights have become common. More than 13,000 migrants returned this year on these chartered flights.
A Bittersweet Reunion
The return allowed Gomez to see the now 20-year-old daughter she left behind when she first fled. But the reunion is bittersweet. Her daughter is planning to migrate to Brazil next month. As for Gomez, she hopes for a job and, above all, good health for her family in the coming year.
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