Why Venezuelan Immigrants Are Leaving Their Country

At the dawn of the second Trump administration this year, the nation witnessed large-scale ICE operations across the country in high immigrant populations, resulting in more than 527,000 deportations and 1.6 million people voluntarily self-deporting. 

Although the expressed intention was to arrest undocumented immigrants who have a criminal record—according to the Department of Homeland Security, 70% of ICE arrests were of undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of a crime—the Cato Institute says more than 65% of individuals in ICE detentions have no criminal convictions.

The mass deportations have led to labor shortage in fields like agriculture and construction as well as the separation of families.

As hostility has intensified under the shifting of immigration policies, physical aggression against immigrants and journalists covering the arrests has become increasingly visible.

When moments of chaos like this unravel, we must ask ourselves: what led us to where we stand?

Unlike what most think, the answer lies far beyond the reality of United States citizens and our borders. 

For decades, authoritarian regimes have taken root across Latin America, turning once thriving countries into scarce lands plagued with corruption and instability. 

Nowhere is this more evident than in Venezuela, where a humanitarian crisis caused by government inefficiency continues to sweep the population.  

The rule of Nicolás Maduro, the current president and protégé of his dictatorial predecessor Hugo Chávez, has been perpetuated since 2015 by decree. 

Similarly to Cuba—its closest ally and military advisor—Venezuela has seen throughout the years the dismantling of democratic institutions, the manipulation of constitutional laws, a severe rise in poverty and the violation of basic human rights.

Maduro has created a hostile atmosphere, weaponizing the military to control opposition through intimidation and arbitrary arrests. 

In 2024, when elections were held for the first time in years, opposition leader María Corina Machado, won with overwhelming numbers that were provided by independent electoral monitors.

Machado, although the face of this campaign, was disqualified by the government from the official ballot after winning the opposition primary in 2023. She consequently endorsed Edmundo González as the democratic candidate for president.

After the 2024 elections, Venezuelans took to the streets, demanding the change they had long awaited. But, the government refused to cede power, denying the results and setting loose a wave of police enforced repression. 

Since then, Machado has lived in hiding, facing public threats to her life and political persecution. For her courage and persistence in restoring democracy in Venezuela, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year. 

Now, a country that has the ability to be prosperous because it possesses one of the largest natural oil reserves in the world, faces a future defined by uncertainty. 

Venezuela’s collapse—alongside crises in countries like Nicaragua and Cuba—has fueled the immigration surge in the United States.

This reality reveals that migrating is rarely a choice; it is a step people are forced to take when their countries have failed them. Millions have endured poverty, hunger, persecution, defamation and exile. Coming to the U.S. became their hope for a better life and an opportunity to give their children the chances they never had.

We often talk about those who leave but rarely about the ones that are left behind who are condemned to continue struggling.

Until there is an international response to authoritarianism within these countries, U.S. tactics to tackle their repercussions will remain temporary and ultimately pointless.