Venezuelan parents are desperate to remove their children from the dangers and hardships.
President-elect Donald Trump has not changed his tune; he still says he plans to begin deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants on day one of his new administration, a policy his MAGA disciples heartily approve. I’ve already written about the devastating economic effects such a policy will almost certainly have on average Americans. But how will this policy affect those being deported?
To get an idea of what these potential deportees are likely to face—and what they so desperately fear—consider what many of them fled and what they endured on their journey here.
Venezuelan Anarchy
In recent years, Venezuelans have made up the largest share of the immigrants seeking asylum in the United States. Several factors are responsible for the Venezuelan exodus, but all tie back to oil. Because the nation was so reliant on oil production, the international drop in oil prices hit it especially hard. U.S. sanctions against the struggling country exacerbated the problem. Before long, the already unstable government was in turmoil, and Venezuela’s citizens—especially the poorest—faced severe shortages of food, medicine, and other essentials.
Into the void stepped violent gangs practicing drug smuggling, extortion, kidnappings, human trafficking, rape, and murder. And if the criminals and crimes weren’t bad enough in themselves, the gang leaders seek to recruit children: boys to become gang members and girls for prostitution. Not surprisingly, then, Venezuelan parents were and are desperate to remove their children from the dangers and hardships.
The Long, Perilous Passage
Depending on where the family’s departure begins in Venezuela, the migration will cover at least 2,800 miles across and through some of the world’s most dangerous environments.
According to a report by the Council on Foreign Relations,
Along the route are smugglers and criminal groups, including members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the Gulf Clan, a paramilitary group and Colombia’s largest drug cartel. These groups often extort and sexually assault migrants. “Deep in the jungle, robbery, rape, and human trafficking are as dangerous as wild animals, insects and the absolute lack of safe drinking water,” Jean Gough, then regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said in an October 2021 news release.
Among those dangers touched upon above are jaguars, crocodiles, poison dart frogs, fer-de-lance snakes, electric eels, piranhas, and bullet ants.
Jaguars are the largest felines native to the Americas. Males typically weigh between 150 and 250 pounds, and females are slightly smaller. While jaguars rarely attack humans, if migrants were to startle one and cause it to feel threatened, like most wild animals, it would fight—and humans would lose.
American crocodiles can reach a length of nearly 20 feet and weigh close to one ton. And while they are generally considered to be less aggressive than their African, Asian, and Australian cousins, they still pose a serious threat to anyone who enters their domain.
According to a LiveScience article,
The most toxic species of poison dart frogs belong to the genus Phyllobates. These frogs secrete a potent toxin called batrachotoxin, according to the Encyclopedia of Toxicology. Golden dart frogs are considered one of the most toxic animals on Earth, according to National Geographic.
Animalia says the fer-de-lance snake
…is irritable and fast-moving. It is also regarded as being excitable and unpredictable. Its large size and habit of raising its head high off the ground can result in bites above the knee. It has also been observed to eject venom over a distance of at least 6 ft (1.8 m) in fine jets from the tips of its fangs.
According to HowStuffWorks, “Although rare, there have been documented instances of electric eel shocks causing serious injury or death, primarily due to drowning or heart failure induced by the shock.”
While piranhas are not the vicious predators sometimes portrayed in movies, they have strong jaws and razor-sharp teeth. A piranha bite likely would be quite painful and could even result in the loss of a finger or toe.
Bullet ant bites are not likely to kill a human, but they are extremely painful, and even just a few bites have been known to incapacitate a grown human.
More Common Dangers
The most common cause of death among migrants fleeing horrid conditions in their homelands is drowning in the many and often turbulent river crossings. Between 2014 and 2024, 3,405 cases of fatal drownings were officially documented. The actual number is likely much higher. Central American rivers are prone to sudden and intense flooding. Anyone caught in the powerful forces of a raging river is in grave danger.
According to a Relief Web article,
The most common health problems our teams deal with are related to the terrible conditions that migrants face as they travel. These include respiratory infections from sleeping outdoors in changing climates, gastrointestinal diseases from drinking unsafe water and not having access to adequate sanitation, as well as open wounds and muscle bruises from long days of walking and acts of violence. The lack of access to medical care along the route worsens these health issues.
In “Most Dangerous Journey: What Central American Migrants Face When They Try to Cross the Border,” Salil Shetty writes,
The scrub-lands and desert in Mexico’s northern state of Coahuila are the last stop for Central American migrants before attempting to cross the border into the USA.
By the time they reach Saltillo, Coahuila’s capital, they have made a perilous journey of nearly 2,000 kilometers. Along the way, many of these men, women and children suffer assaults, robbery and abduction by criminal gangs. There are also reports of extortion and ill-treatment by police and immigration officials. Tragically, some migrants are killed before they even get this far.
Then: American Anger
Then, those who complete the long, perilous trek to an unfamiliar land face hostility from those whose ancestors made similar journeys, often for similar reasons. “We have no room for you here; go back home” is a common sentiment among native-born Americans—especially those of the MAGA persuasion. Long forgotten are the accounts of the grueling passage made by their parents or grandparents who gave them the comfortable life they now have no intention of sharing. And, sadly, a significant percentage of those unwelcoming MAGA folks are white evangelical Christians whose Bible repeatedly tells them to welcome strangers and aliens.
But for far too many U.S. Americans, the choice between sharing and hoarding is really a choice between the compassion embodied in Jesus and the callousness embodied in Donald Trump. We now know who won that contest among America’s white evangelicals.
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