Since the 2015 fiscal year, the number of US asylum claims from Venezuelans has quadrupled, and the number of people trying to escape oppression in their own country threatens to become even higher, with conditions deteriorating. Experts fear that the US might be caught unprepared if it does not begin making preparations now to help neighboring nations deal with the influx.
Matthew O’Brien, the former senior advisor to the Ombudsman at US Citizenship and Immigration Services, says the US does not have the capacity to move every Venezuelan who wishes to leave their home country, and that he doubts anyone in the federal government has any idea how to cope with a massive number of people leaving Venezuela.
Venezuela was in the spotlight on Friday when President Donald Trump suggested that military intervention could be possible to try and sort out the growing problems in the South American nation. Venezuelan asylum cases increased from 5605 in 2015, to 9123 in the 2016 fiscal year, according to data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services, a jump of as much as 163 percent.
Venezuelan asylum cases have risen further during the first nine months of the 2017 fiscal year, between June and October. They have reached 21,655, a figure that does not include ‘defensive’ asylum cases involving Venezuelan immigrants already in the US and trying to avoid deportation. O’Brien says that growing violence and the worsening economy in the country means there is potential for the numbers to increase.