SAN ANTONIO — A new rule barring most Venezuelans from entering the United States to seek asylum will likely impact operations at San Antonio's Migrant Resource Center.
From July to early September, the city served roughly 23,000 migrants. About 90 percent of those people fled Venezuela, according to city data.
Catholic Charities, now overseeing operations at the facility, declined to comment for this story. It's not clear whether it will now scale back operations at the resource center.
The Department of Homeland Security announced the new rule this week in an effort to reduce record numbers of Venezuelans entering the United States to seek asylum.
Federal data indicates 33,000 Venezuelan migrants crossed the U.S. border in September. From 2014 to 2019, border patrol encountered an average of 127 Venezuelan migrants each month.
An authoritarian-leaning government and poor economic conditions exacerbated by the pandemic drive thousands of migrants out of the South American country each day.
But federal agents will now deport to Mexico any Venezuelan migrants who cross the border by land or water without authorization. Those migrants would be ineligible for asylum for at least five years.
The U.S. government will offer visas to 24,000 Venezuelan applicants, as long as they have financial sponsors already in the United States. Applicants must also have current vaccinations and pass background checks.
"24,000 is really just the tip of the iceberg," said Oscar Chacon, executive director for Alianza Americas. "As the most powerful, wealthiest nation on the planet we should be able to do better than that."