MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombia orders deportation of irregular migrants after a decade as the main host country

“The order to Migration is clear: first those committing crimes, second those who have not regularised their status, who in due course will have to be deported,” he said

Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella has ordered coordinated operations between the migration authority and the police to begin this week to identify and deport foreigners without regular migration status, marking a shift from the policy the country has maintained for more than a decade as the main destination for Venezuelan migration.

“The order to Migration is clear: first those committing crimes, second those who have not regularised their status, who in due course will have to be deported,” he said during a security council meeting held on Sunday in Barranquilla, the alternate seat of his government. The remarks became known through a leaked video of that meeting. “I will not accept illegal migration. First Colombians, second Colombians and third Colombians,” he added.

Figures on the scope of the measure differ. The Venezuela Observatory at Universidad del Rosario puts the number of Venezuelans without regular status at 848,000, of whom 193,000 would be minors. Migración Colombia data as of January 2026, cited by the outlet La Silla Vacía, indicate that around 82% of Venezuelan migrants hold regular status and close to 500,000 do not. The United Nations refugee agency estimated three million Venezuelans living in Colombia in 2025.

The announcement calls into question the Temporary Protection Statute for Venezuelan Migrants, created by decree in March 2021, which provides a free temporary protection permit and made the country an international reference point on migration regularisation. Colombia took in almost a third of the 7.8 million people who have left Venezuela since 2015, under governments of differing political persuasions.

“A person in irregular status is not a criminal,” said Ronal Rodríguez, a researcher at the observatory, warning against linking irregularity with crime. Congresswoman María Fernanda Carrascal, of the Pacto Histórico, called the measure “an affront to human rights” and said it lacked evidence. Academic Andrés Sampayo estimated the Venezuelan population's contribution to the Colombian economy at around 3 billion dollars a year in consumption, taxes and entrepreneurship.

Implementation faces practical obstacles. Colombia shares a 2,219-kilometre land border with Venezuela, and any mass deportation would require cooperation from the government of acting president Delcy Rodríguez, in a country undergoing a US-backed negotiated transition.

At the same security council meeting, De la Espriella ordered the activation of a rewards system, the strengthening of the informants network and prison transfers to prevent jails from operating as bases for extortion.