Reports suggest that a foreign leader is using the lax immigration policies of the Biden administration against the United States.
Daniel Ortega, who became president of Nicaragua again in 2007 after a 17-year hiatus, is allegedly attempting to extract concessions from the White House by allowing undocumented migrants to use his country as a waystation on their way to the U.S. border.
An analysis of flight data reveals 268 chartered flights arriving in Nicaragua from Haiti since the beginning of August. Political instability, gang violence and natural disasters have left Haiti in chaos and drive migration by refugees hoping to flee to the United States.
The continuing flow of migrants has left North American leaders, especially those in the U.S., struggling to find solutions. Experts believe that President Ortega is using the ongoing crisis to “negotiate” with Washington's tightening sanctions against his anti-democratic regime.
“The Ortega government knows they have few important policy tools at hand to confront the United States, … so they have armed migration as a way to attack,” concluded Manuel Orozco, director of the migration, remittances and development program at the Inter-American Dialogue. “This is definitely a concrete example of weaponizing migration as a foreign policy.”
Orozco estimates that 31,000 Haitians have been flown to Nicaragua on chartered flights in the past two months. That number represents almost 60% of the Haitian population that recently arrived at the U.S. border.
During the same period, 17,000 people were flown from Cuba to Nicaragua on more than 170 flights.
According to the Associated Press, Nicaragua serves as a departure point for migrants heading to the United States due to its policy of allowing visa-free travel.
Enrique Martínez, a spokesperson for the Ortega opposition group “Platform of Democratic Unity,” told the Daily Mail the migrant flights are happening at a crucial moment in Ortega's presidency.
“Ortega is going to use this migration issue to say to the United States that we're the ones in control. And if they want to stop this, they're going to have to negotiate,” Martínez said.
The Daily Mail reports on the Caribbean exodus with plane tickets costing upward of $5,000:
Stéphanie Armand, a spokesperson for Sunrise Airways, which data show carried out at least 15 flights over the past week, said Sunrise don't sell tickets to Nicaragua.
According to Armand, the airline is contracted by ‘third parties' to carry out the flights. She would not elaborate on who the third parties were.
Asked if the carrier's services are being used by people smugglers to carry out migration to the U.S., Armand said the company checks passengers´ documents before boarding.
She wrote: ‘As an airline and aircraft operator, we have no information about the intentions of passengers we are carrying.
“If passengers comply with the country's entry requirements and are admitted, it is for the authorities, not the airlines, to follow up on their status,” Armand added.
The Biden administration recently lifted sanctions on Venezuela's socialized oil and gas industry after Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro agreed to hold an election.
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