Colombia’s far-right President Abelardo de la Espriella ordered police raids and deportations of irregular migrants on Sunday. The policy marks a sharp pivot from a decade of welcoming Venezuelan refugees, drawing immediate condemnation from human rights advocates and political opponents.
Just over two weeks into his term, President Abelardo de la Espriella announced a sweeping immigration crackdown during a security council meeting in Barranquilla. The millionaire former lawyer turned president stated that law enforcement agencies would begin coordinated operations immediately to target foreign nationals residing in the country without valid legal status or those accused of criminal activity.
The announcement represents a profound ideological shift for a nation that absorbed nearly a third of the massive Venezuelan diaspora over the past decade and built international praise for its humanitarian regularization schemes.
Targeting Undocumented Populations and Echoing US Rhetoric
During the security meeting, the conservative leader vowed to start deporting undocumented migrants as part of a broader strategy to combat rising insecurity. The crackdown applies universally wherever they come from
, though the vast majority of foreign nationals in Colombia originate from neighboring Venezuela due to its severe economic collapse and political crisis.
De la Espriella explicitly adopted nationalist phrasing that closely mirrored the political style of his close ally, United States President Donald Trump and other conservative regional leaders such as Argentina’s Javier Milei and Chile’s José Antonio Kast who have similarly tightened border enforcement.
The newly minted president asserted that the directive was a deliberate political choice. I will not accept any illegal immigrants, wherever they come from,
de la Espriella declared in a video posted to his X account. They will have to leave and be deported. It is a political decision I am taking responsibility for.
Weighing the Stakes for Millions of Venezuelan Diaspora Members
United Nations data shows that approximately 2.8 million Venezuelans reside in Colombia, making it the largest Venezuelan diaspora globally. Out of that total population, 848,000 are in an irregular situation, a figure that includes 193,000 children and adolescents who lack official paperwork.
This aggressive posture targets a framework built in 2021 by former President Iván Duque, which granted temporary residence permits to roughly 2.3 million undocumented Venezuelans to give them access to healthcare and legal employment during the peak of the humanitarian crisis. Humanitarian leaders argue that cutting off these paths will punish vulnerable families rather than improve public safety.
Ana Karina García, director of the migrant aid organization Juntos Se Puede, noted that the previous administration had already stopped issuing new temporary permits three years ago and urged the government to expand legal pathways instead of punishing populations who cannot easily obtain regular status.
“We understand that the president wants to protect Colombians, but there is no need to protect them from migrants. It has been proven that foreigners do not commit crimes at greater rates than the local population.”
Ana Karina García, Director of Juntos Se Puede
Institutional Hurdles and Sharp Regional Criticism
The sudden policy shift has met with intense pushback from legal experts, economists, and political opponents. Legal scholars and researchers like Ronal Rodríguez from the University of Rosario have warned that conflating migration status with criminality stigmatizes a vulnerable population and breaks sharply with a decade of bipartisan consensus.
