Colombia Orders Mass Deportation Operations Targeting Undocumented Immigrants

Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella ordered security forces to initiate coordinated police operations to hunt down and deport undocumented immigrants on Sunday, August 23, 2026. The directive marks a total shift in migration policy for South America's largest host of Venezuelan migrants.

Speaking during a security council meeting in the Caribbean city of Barranquilla, the newly elected conservative leader stated that enforcement actions would start immediately. The directive primary targets undocumented foreigners involved in criminal activity alongside those residing in the country without legal authorization.

"Let the coordinated operations begin to find illegal immigrants: first, those who are committing crimes; second, those who do not have their status regularized, who in the short term will have to be deported," said Abelardo de la Espriella, President of Colombia.

The policy shift impacts the country's broader immigrant population, including approximately 2.8 million Venezuelans who make up roughly 90 percent of all foreign residents in Colombia. Official statistics from Migracion Colombia indicate that over 847,000 Venezuelans currently reside in the country without legal status, including 193,000 minors.

"I am not going to accept illegal immigrants, wherever they come from, who are committing misdeeds in Colombia. They are leaving and we are deporting them. It is a political and administrative decision and I assume it," said Abelardo de la Espriella, President of Colombia.

The announcement drew immediate concern from policy experts and human rights advocates, who warned against equating irregular status with criminality. Experts noted that previous administrations established legal frameworks to absorb nearly a third of the 7.8 million people who fled Venezuela's economic crisis.

"It is dangerous for the president to join a discourse that stigmatizes migrants by asserting that they are illegal. That discourse has existed in the region, unfortunately gaining ground worldwide, but Colombia had distanced itself," said Ronal Rodriguez, spokesman and researcher at the Universidad del Rosario's Venezuela Observatory.

Researchers emphasized that Colombia shares a 2,219-kilometer (1,378-mile) porous border with Venezuela, making physical expulsions logistically difficult and ineffective without institutional reform. Furthermore, undocumented status remains an administrative matter under national law rather than a criminal offense.

"The government puts all migrants in the same bag and talks about criminality clearly associated with irregularity. That is not how it is in Colombia: a person who is in irregular status is not a criminal," said Ronal Rodriguez, spokesman and researcher at the Universidad del Rosario's Venezuela Observatory.

Political opponents also denounced the executive order, characterizing the security approach as an attempt to scapegoat a vulnerable population. Critics pointed out that Venezuelan immigrants contribute an estimated $3 billion annually to the national economy through taxes, consumption, and business enterprises.

"Linking irregular migrants to criminality solely because of having an irregular migratory status is an affront against human rights, and an absurd statement lacking any evidence," said Maria Fernanda Carrascal, Congresswoman for Pacto Historico.

Legislators warned that the high-level rhetoric threatens to exacerbate social hostility and deepen pre-existing xenophobia across major urban centers.

"They seek to construct migrants as scapegoats, as subjects on whom a target is placed, with the intention that society expresses its discomfort against them," said Maria Fernanda Carrascal, Congresswoman for Pacto Historico.

Legal professionals representing foreign residents reported widespread panic among migrant communities following the president's speech. Legal aid providers noted an immediate surge in inquiries from families seeking options to regularize their stay.

"The worry is enormous. We haven't even been able to count the number of people who have called us to see what their options are," said Cesar Gonzalez, immigration attorney residing in Colombia.

Despite the executive decree, state authorities face severe operational constraints. Official sources at Migracion Colombia confirmed that the agency currently lacks sufficient temporary holding facilities, personnel, and infrastructure to execute large-scale deportations.

"The Colombian state, unlike other countries that can play a bit with the dynamics of containment or even expulsion, does not have the capacity to do that. The Colombian state takes longer and spends more transferring them to the border area and handing them over to immigration authorities than that person takes to return," said Ronal Rodriguez, spokesman and researcher at the Universidad del Rosario's Venezuela Observatory.

Rights organizations called on the executive branch to reopen legal mechanisms for regularization rather than relying on punitive enforcement measures. Access to legal documentation under the Temporary Protection Statute has remained closed for over three years.

"You cannot persecute a migrant for not wanting to regularize if there is no regularization methodology, because let's remember that the Temporary Protection Statute has been closed for more than three years," said Ana Karina Garcia, director of the Juntos Se Puede Foundation.

Community leaders urged public officials to distinguish between criminal networks and families fleeing humanitarian hardship, emphasizing that statistical data shows no direct link between foreign immigration and rising crime rates.

"Obviously this triggers xenophobia because people do not measure their words when talking about the issue of deporting," said Arles Pereda, president of the Colony of Venezuelans in Colombia.

Civil society groups expressed concern that rhetoric linking foreigners to crime risks institutionalizing discrimination in public spaces.

"I agree that crime should be pursued, but not that it should be linked to migration, which also triggers xenophobia. It is proven in figures that criminality is not related to migrants," said Ana Karina Garcia, director of the Juntos Se Puede Foundation.

Academics stressed that minors holding irregular status require special state protection, education access, and targeted outreach rather than threat of expulsion.

"There must be an active search in cities to protect these children, regularize them, and give them access to the educational system," said Ronal Rodriguez, spokesman and researcher at the Universidad del Rosario's Venezuela Observatory.

Analysts observed that Colombia's shift aligns with broader conservative migration policies implemented across North and South America.

"One of the first effects generated when a high dignitary of a country refers to the migration issue is that it in some way legitimizes the xenophobic behaviors of a portion of the population," said Ronal Rodriguez, spokesman and researcher at the Universidad del Rosario's Venezuela Observatory.

Migracion Colombia indicated that the execution of control operations, regularizations, and deportations will formally begin once the government appoints and swears in the agency's new director.