The Biden administration plans to impose visa restrictions on 250 people and sanctions against three organizations supporting the Nicaraguan government. Officials in Nicaragua's authoritarian leadership claim they are profiting from people trying to reach the United States.
Government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to preview the plan, said Wednesday that President Daniel Ortega's government has created a system that would benefit large numbers of migrants by charging them visa fees on arrival. They called the airport and asked them to leave Nicaragua within 96 hours.
The Biden administration also plans to issue policy warnings to private companies, including airlines, about concerns about irregular immigration patterns and potential human rights abuses arising from those practices. Officials said there were no efforts to enforce the policy.
The announcement reflects growing concern among President Biden and his advisers that the surge in illegal immigration to the United States poses a growing threat to his re-election campaign. It also showed the administration's options for stemming the flow of immigrants from troubled countries whose citizens seek a better life in the United States.
Nicaragua is an increasingly popular hub for immigrants seeking to reach the United States from Latin America and Africa. Government officials say the visa sales practice leads to human rights abuses and leads to human traffickers and smugglers preying on people rushing through the country in hopes of eventually reaching the southwestern U.S. border. It is said that it is creating opportunities for
The State Department will issue visa restrictions for 250 people, including government employees and family members of people associated with the Ortega administration. The Treasury Department plans to impose sanctions on three entities that financially support the Nicaraguan government, including one official who said: This includes the Russian Military Training Center, which is supporting the
The United States has so far issued visa restrictions on at least 1,400 people, many of them Nicaraguan officials, “particularly those who have participated in human rights abuses or acts of corruption,” according to a statement from State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. “We are targeting the following.”
Nicaragua's government spokeswoman, Vice President and First Lady Rosario Murillo, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the visa restrictions.
In November 2021, Biden issued an executive order restricting entry into the United States of people who “undermine or harm Nicaragua's democratic institutions or impede its return to democracy.” “The repressive and abusive actions of the Ortega regime and those who support it compel the United States to act.”
Nearly half of Nicaraguans are interested in leaving the country, according to a 2023 study by Vanderbilt University's Americas Barometer Project. That number has steadily increased under Mr. Ortega, whose government has taken steps to close universities, confiscate the homes of dissidents forced into exile and strip political prisoners of their citizenship. .
The survey also found that around 32 percent of people in the 26 Latin American countries surveyed said they wanted to immigrate.
Mr. Biden has sought in recent months to shift political responsibility for the migrant surge back to Republicans, who blocked a bipartisan bill that would include the toughest border measures in decades. Biden's challenger, former President Donald J. Trump, had influenced Republican lawmakers who pushed the bill through.
On Tuesday night, Biden again told a group of supporters that Trump was to blame for delays on the new border bill.
“Republicans in Congress must act because it's the right thing to do. America needs it,” Biden said.
Francis Robles Contributed to the report.
