The United States reported more than 16,000 Ecuadorians detained, expelled, and deported last April.
The United States reported more than 16,000 Ecuadorians detained, expelled, and deported (DED) last April, according to a report by the organization 1800Migrante based on statistics from the Department of Border Protection of that North American country.
In a statement, the organization points out that the Government led by President Daniel Noboa “has not been able to control the exodus and irregular departure of Ecuadorians to the United States.”
It adds that the most recent statistical publication of the US Department of Border Protection reports a new increase in the number of DED Ecuadorians.
In March “there were 15,951 Ecuadorians counted, while for the month of April it increased to 16,023 citizens”, while in April 2023 there were 6,497 DED Ecuadorians, which reveals an “increase of more than 200%,” it indicated.
“The shocking figure of 94,871 Ecuadorians who have been registered in the first seven months of this fiscal year 2024 in the USA, reflects a lack of public policy towards this social reality, which, by the way, did not exist in the last three Governments in Ecuador,” the organization noted.
It added that there are five months left until the end of the current fiscal year and they believe that this year will mark “a migration record for Ecuadorians” to the United States.
Protected status application given to US
At the end of last January, Ecuador submitted a request to the United States for approval of the immigration benefit of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for its non-regularized compatriots in that country, due to the internal armed conflict it is experiencing. Currently, the South American nation fights against organized crime gangs, and the civilian population is the most affected.
“The TPS request for Ecuadorians to the United States was left in the hands of President Joe Biden; the times to provide consular services in several consulates have been improved, and the queues have disappeared, and the waiting times are shorter. But it is not enough when we have dozens of thousands of Ecuadorians in vulnerable situations crossing the borders of the region including Darién,” said William Murillo, spokesperson for the organization.
He added that the country needs responsible public policies that provide solutions to the current “humanitarian crisis with migrants.”
Diplomatic crisis
Murillo also referred to the negative effects for migrants of the suspension of relations between Mexico and Ecuador following the armed police assault on the Mexican Embassy in Quito at the beginning of last April to arrest Jorge Glas, former vice president during the terms of former head of state Rafael Correa (2007-2017) and the beginning of the Government of Lenín Moreno (2017-2021).
Glas, who is now in the country’s maximum-security prison, had entered the embassy in December when there was still no prison order against him, which was subsequently issued for a case investigating alleged embezzlement of funds in a trial. Reconstruction of the coastal province of Manabí after the 2016 earthquake.
Jorge Glas must also finish serving a sentence for which he already spent nearly five years in prison for two other corruption cases.
“It is evident that the effects of the diplomatic crisis between Ecuador and Mexico transcend the political, and it is the citizens of our countries who pay the consequences of extreme positions of their national leaders,” said Murillo.
For this reason, 1800Migrantes asked the Ecuadorian and Mexican governments for “the necessary maturity to solve the diplomatic crisis generated, reestablish diplomatic and consular relations.”
According to the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry, the Government of Peru has accepted a proposal from Ecuador to exercise its consular representation and assist Ecuadorians who require that support in Mexican territory.
It also reported that its compatriots in Mexican territory would be served from their consulates in Guatemala and in the American cities of Houston and Phoenix.
Perhaps the record number leaving are low level gang members getting the hell out of Dodge before they get rounded up here.