When you think things are bad here, count your lucky stars you aren't there. (1 Viewer)

[El Caliente]

As political and economic unrest roils Venezuela, U.S. asylum applications filed by Venezuelans so far in fiscal 2016 have jumped 168% compared with the same time period a year earlier, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data.

Venezuela is now among the top nations of origin for asylum applicants to the U.S., accounting for 10,221 applications filed between October 2015 and June 2016 – up from 3,810 filed during the same time period the year before. (The data exclude applicants in the process of deportation.)
Venezuelan asylum applications to U.S. soar in 2016 | Pew Research Center

I have known a lot of Venezuelans over the years. Great, hard working, diligent people (and in the females cases, very hot) but what is going on over there is just horrible. The situation has gone to the dogs as you now have people waiting in line for hours just to get powdered milk and a flour to make bread. The currency is in the crapper, and the President is a former bus driver who isn't even Venezuelan. Chavez left those people in a world of hurt, and now they are in a dark place.

These people are the cream of the crop. The brain drain of Venezuela's best and brightest is going to have repercussions on that country for decades. It's the professionals and entrepreneurs that are able to get a tourist visa and then apply for asylum once they are here. If you could somehow track the economic growth these Venezuelan asylees create over the next decade, I'm sure it would be astronomical. With all the talk of border walls and such, I'm glad we still have a smart asylum program that accepts those fleeing political persecution around the world...it's good for them, and it's GREAT for our economy.

 

[WhoDatPhan78]

I have known a lot of Venezuelans over the years. Great, hard working, diligent people (and in the females cases, very hot) but what is going on over there is just horrible. The situation has gone to the dogs as you now have people waiting in line for hours just to get powdered milk and a flour to make bread. The currency is in the crapper, and the President is a former bus driver who isn't even Venezuelan. Chavez left those people in a world of hurt, and now they are in a dark place.

These people are the cream of the crop. The brain drain of Venezuela's best and brightest is going to have repercussions on that country for decades. It's the professionals and entrepreneurs that are able to get a tourist visa and then apply for asylum once they are here. If you could somehow track the economic growth these Venezuelan asylees create over the next decade, I'm sure it would be astronomical. With all the talk of border walls and such, I'm glad we still have a smart asylum program that accepts those fleeing political persecution around the world...it's good for them, and it's GREAT for our economy.

I doubt many of those asylum application are going to get approved.

You have to prove persecution to be granted asylum.

Your country going to hell isn't enough.

 

[El Caliente]

I doubt many of those asylum application are going to get approved.

You have to prove persecution to be granted asylum.

Your country going to hell isn't enough.

You want to make America great again, do what made America great before and accept immigrants as we did in the early days of this country.

 

[WhoDatPhan78]

You want to make America great again, do what made America great before and accept immigrants as we did in the early days of this country.

I agree.

I wasn't giving my opinion. That's how the law requires asylum applications to be adjudicated.

 

[superchuck500]

It's a total **** show in Venezuela - so sad. And yes, Chavez was an economic disaster, but he's been gone for two years and there has been no real effort for reform. Maduro needs to go but he seems hell bent on staying and has loyalists in the judiciary and military that will defend him against challenge.

They're not going to be bailed out by an oil price spike. It's really bad.