Chile: Boric announces expulsion of irregular immigrants in the face of more crime

Chili will expel irregular immigrants who have not contributed their data to a voluntary biometric registration plan, the president announced on Thursday Gabriel Boricby toughening its discourse against irregular migration.

“Those who are irregular in Chile, we are going to throw them out”said Boric, in a ceremony in which he presented a plan to strengthen territorial control tasks by the police forces, outlined in light of the increase in crime rates and record data on the perception of public insecurity among the population.

The leftist president ordered the police authorities to detain and expel within a period of five days those irregular immigrants who have an outstanding arrest warrant.

“Regarding foreigners who are in an irregular situation and have not completed the voluntary registration, even if they do not have an arrest warrant against them, an expulsion decree will be issued”Boric said.

This year the government promoted a biometric registration plan for irregular foreigners. The process, which has already completed, managed to store the data of 127,000 people.

The initiative sought to correct the information deficit regarding the identity of foreigners who entered Chile irregularly in the last five years, the vast majority coming from Venezuela.

The increase in irregular immigration dominates the debate in Chile after a series of high-profile police cases involving foreigners, including the attack on a police officer using a grenade on November 19.

The right-wing opposition threatened to initiate a political trial against the Minister of the Interior and Security, Carolina Tohá, if the expulsion of 12,000 irregular migrants is not carried out before the end of the year.

Since 2017, Chile has recorded an exponential increase in the arrival of migrants from Venezuela, thousands of whom crossed the border through Bolivia or Peru through clandestine passages.

According to official estimates, of the 1.7 million foreigners who arrived in Chile in recent years, almost half of them are Venezuelans.

The draft new Constitution to replace the one in force since the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), on which Chileans must vote in a plebiscite on December 17, contains an article that requires the expulsion of irregular migrants in the country. in the shortest possible time, addressing an issue that is currently monopolizing public opinion.