Posted on 02/14/2017 1:03:24 PM PST by Lorianne
Venezuelans for the first time led asylum requests to the United States as the country's middle class fled the crashing, oil-dependent economy.
Data from the U.S. government's Citizenship and Immigration Services show that 18,155 Venezuelans submitted asylum requests last year, a 150 percent increase over 2015 and six times the level seen in 2014. China was second place, with 17,745 requests coming from citizens of that country.
Venezuela first cracked the top 10 asylum-seeking nations following months of sometimes bloody street protests in early 2014 seeking to oust President Nicolas Maduro.
But back then, amid the widespread jailing and harassment of opponents of the socialist administration, fewer than 100 Venezuelans per month sought asylum. That compares with 2,334 requests in December, 2016, the last month for which data is available.
The number of applicants has skyrocketed since December 2015, when the opposition took control of congress in a landslide election, giving hope to many that it could disrupt 17 years of socialist rule. Instead of reaching out to his opponents, Maduro retrenched and more and more Venezuelans began to uproot as triple-digit inflation pulverized salaries and widespread food and medicine shortages made life unbearable for many.
The vast majority leaving are middle-class Venezuelans who don't qualify for refugee status reserved for those seeking to escape political persecution, according to Julio Henriquez, director of the Boston-based nonprofit Refugee Freedom Program, which has been drawing attention to the trend.
"The pace at which requests are increasing is alarming," said Henriquez, whose group obtained the still-unpublished data in a Feb. 8 meeting between U.S. officials and immigration lawyers. "It's not just worrisome that so many people are escaping the terrible situation in Venezuela but also that the practice of sending asylum-seekers with poor advice and false proof is proliferating."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Venezuela is a good lesson in how bad things can get before the people rise up to overthrow their government.
Apparently the bar is pretty darned low.
I agree. We don’t need socialists any more than we need muzzies.
Why would I let them foul my nest?
Si! Si! Si!
remember?
Oil prices have doubled in the past year, haven’t they? Doesn’t that take the edge off a bit?
Or is this a NWO-led excuse to flood the USA with more of the world to overload the system?
I think we should send each and every bernie voter to venezuela in exchange
Venezula has been selling valid passports to “Middle Easteners” with false names, birthdays, mothers, etc.
Any “Venezulans” need EXTREME vetting!!!
“Do we need a temporary ban on socialists entering the country?”
Like the limousine liberal that gets mugged, I think any of these people who had previously been leftist have been hit by reality. Besides, the middle class is predominately anti-chavista to start with.
On the other hand, it is up to us to decide if we want to allow them to immigrate.
Well its not as bad as North Gonnerea where cannibalism is rising as the hungry try to survive.
AN UPDATED “MODEST PROPOSAL”:
Let’s ship our deported illegal aliens to the starving people of Venezuela. We’d solve the US illegal alien problem & solve the Venezuela hunger problem simultaneously — a win-win.
Wonder why they don;t go to Cuba. Cuba must be kind of, sort of empty with all the people abandoning that island.
Unexpected
While we're at it, let's ship all the liberals & SJWs there as well. They'll learn the glories of socialism while killing each other over a can of beans (or eating each other).
Caracas, Venezuela has the highest murder rate of any city in the World. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_murder_rate
We shouldn’t allow anyone from that country into the US.
Heard Venezuela kicked CNN out of the country for fake news.
If refugees are CNN, that’d be a TOTAL deal breaker.
And yet the media continues to ignore what is going on down there.
Yeah, we need more socialists with their hands out.
No.
American citizenship and asylum is not the prize when you fuch up your country.
Are the would-be migrants socialists — or, have they been inoculated against socialism (having experienced the results)?
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