Historic Venezuelan refugee crisis tests U.S. border policies

Washington — A sharp increase in Venezuelan arrivals is contributing to a recent spike in migration along the U.S. southern border, highlighting the limited resources and policy options available to American officials for responding to an unprecedented refugee crisis in the region.

More than 7.7 million people have fled Venezuela in recent years to escape its precipitous economic collapse and authoritarian rule — the largest displacement crisis ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere. It's also currently the largest migrant exodus globally, now bigger in scale than the number of registered refugees from war-torn Ukraine and Syria, according to estimates compiled by the United Nations. 

The majority of displaced Venezuelans have settled in other South American countries, mainly Peru and Colombia, which has hosted nearly 3 million migrants. But more Venezuelans are leaving those countries with deteriorating economies or Venezuela itself to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border, where illegal crossings have reached near-record levels this month.