Colombia president orders migrant deportation crackdown

Colombia's President Abelardo de la Espriella has ordered an immigration crackdown, telling authorities to begin detaining undocumented foreigners convicted of crimes with a view to deporting them.

De la Espriella, a right-wing lawyer who took office on August 7, issued the order after campaigning to fight crime and drug-trafficking guerrillas. Immigration was not a central theme of his campaign.

In video footage of a security meeting in Barranquilla on Sunday, he said: “I will not accept illegal migrants, no matter where they come from.”

He said immigration authorities had been told to focus first on people committing crimes and then on those who had not regularised their status and would have to be deported in due course. He said deportation procedures would start this week by presidential order.

Colombia has been the main destination for Venezuelans fleeing economic crisis across the border over the past decade. Colombia's immigration department said about 2.8 million Venezuelans were living in the country as of June, including more than 527,000 undocumented people.

At the meeting, De la Espriella said: “Colombians first, Colombians second, Colombians third, may that be clear to everyone.”

Left-wing senator and activist Maria Jose Pizarro accused him of proposing “a Colombian ICE” and called the deportation directive “pure xenophobia and hatred of the poor.” She said migration was a human right, not a crime.

Reaction on social media was divided. Some Colombians applauded the measure and accused migrants, particularly Venezuelans, of driving up crime rates, while others defended Venezuelan migrants as hard-working and said they contributed to the economy.