The idea of tackling the “root causes” of migration and asylum flows is the kind of high-minded notion likely to be dismissed by politicians such as Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis, who brag that they are actually doing something about the immigrants showing up at the U.S.-Mexico border while other officials just talk. Yet a look at the reasons why so many Venezuelans are seeking asylum shows that there are some pretty obvious steps the U.S. could take that would reduce incentives to make the perilous journey.
Spoiler alert: These steps do not include loading the migrants onto buses or airplanes and sending them to blue states.
Venezuela is subject to some fairly crippling economic sanctions first imposed under President Donald Trump and continued by Joe Biden. The sanctions are hardly the only cause of Venezuela’s economic misery, but they do contribute to it — indeed, that’s the whole point. If the U.S. lifted the sanctions, the economic situation in Venezuela would improve and fewer people could come.
