Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella ordered immediate police raids and deportation procedures for irregular migrants, marking a sharp reversal of a decade-old humanitarian policy. Announced during a cabinet meeting in Barranquilla, the crackdown prioritizes criminals and undocumented individuals, directly affecting nearly one million people.
Colombia has fundamentally rewritten its migration playbook. Just over two weeks after taking office, far-right President Abelardo de la Espriella ordered the country’s national immigration service and national police to launch coordinated raids to track down and deport thousands of foreign nationals living in the country without legal residence permits.
The announcement arrived on Sunday while the cabinet convened in Barranquilla, a Caribbean city that the administration has effectively treated as an alternative capital. The country is already grappling with the devastation of an August 10 earthquake that killed more than 300 people and destroyed over 30,000 homes amid the ongoing national crisis.
Presidential Decree Targets Undocumented Migrants and Criminals First
The sweeping enforcement directive establishes a strict two-tier priority system for law enforcement operations. Speaking in a video released on his X account, the ultra-conservative leader outlined who will face immediate detention and removal.
The president explicitly embraced nationalist rhetoric, declaring that the government will operate under the principle of “Colombians first, Colombians second, Colombians third.” Observers noted strong parallels to the America first
platform of U.S. President Donald Trump, with whom de la Espriella maintains close political alignment according to regional reporting.
Impact on the Venezuelan Diaspora and Legal Uncertainty
While the administration’s directive applies to foreign nationals regardless of nationality, it heavily impacts the large Venezuelan population in Colombia. Out of approximately 2.8 million Venezuelans living in the country, roughly 848,000 hold an irregular migratory status according to official immigration data, a figure that includes 193,000 children and adolescents.
This hardline posture marks a complete departure from the welcoming stance maintained for more than a decade under previous centrist, right-wing, and left-wing administrations. Following the 2015 onset of the Venezuelan migration crisis, Colombia absorbed nearly a third of the 7.8 million displaced citizens who fled a repressive regime and a 75% contraction in their nation’s GDP as documented by international observers.
As recently as July, national immigration records showed that the government had granted temporary residence permits to approximately 2.3 million undocumented Venezuelans under a regularisation scheme rolled out in 2021 by former President Iván Duque. However, migrant advocacy groups note that the state stopped issuing new temporary residency permits three years ago.
Opposition Backlash and Administrative Roadblocks
Human rights advocates and opposition lawmakers swiftly condemned the presidential order, arguing that it criminalizes poverty and vulnerable populations. Ana Karina García, director of the migrant support organization Juntos Se Puede, criticized the underlying premise of the security shift.
“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.”
Ana Karina García, Director of Juntos Se Puede
Leftwing lawmakers voiced similar alarms. Congresswoman María Fernanda Carrascal of the Historic Pact party denounced the decree as an affront to human rights, and an absurd claim lacking any evidence
intended to turn migrants into social scapegoats in the eyes of the public. Senator María José Pizarro Rodríguez publicly questioned whether the administration was attempting to establish a “Colombian ICE” modeled after U.S. immigration enforcement.
Legal analysts and institutional insiders point to immediate logistical barriers facing the executive order. Sources within the national migration agency, Migracion Colombia, stated that the department currently lacks a permanent director and does not possess enough staff to execute the promised mass raids. Furthermore, legal scholars emphasize that under Colombian law, being in the country without proper documentation is an irregular administrative situation rather than a criminal offense.
With regional neighbors including Chile, Peru, and Ecuador also tightening border restrictions under conservative leaders, Venezuelan community leaders like Arles Pereda warn that displaced families face closing doors across South America while economic contributions—estimated by researchers at roughly $3 billion annually through consumption and taxes—risk severe disruption.
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