Thousands of them set out on their way to the north of the continent. It was in 2022 when the number of migrants in irregular status increased in Mexico, but also in the United States.
According to figures from the National Migration Institute (Inami), that year in the country 96,197 Venezuelans were in an irregular situation in Mexicothe figure means 22 times more than the 4,360 of a previous year.
In 2023 and 2024, the number of Venezuelans in irregular status was even greater and exceeded the figure of 200,000 and 300,000 respectively. In three years, they registered 679,543 people from that country in Mexico.
Between 2018 and 2025, Mexican authorities detained 718,967 migrants of Venezuelan origin who had an irregular situation.
In the United States it also registered an increase. In fiscal year 2023, a total of 334,914 migrants of Venezuelan origin were detained on the border with Mexico and the United States, a figure that fell drastically in fiscal year 2025 to 64,826.
Venezuelans became the second nationality with the most detentions by United States authorities, only behind Mexicans. Both left behind migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, who occupied the first place years ago.
(Photo: Gabriela Pérez Montiel/Cuartoscuro.)
