Chile follows the Trump model and announces immigrant deportation flights

The president of Chile, José Antonio Kast, announced this Wednesday (15) the carrying out of the first flight to deport irregular immigrants, scheduled for this Thursday morning (16).

The measure, presented during his first televised speech as head of state, follows the strategy of spectacularizing immigration policies adopted by far-right governments, such as Donald Trump’s in the United States.

Deportations as a media spectacle

“Tomorrow, early in the morning, the first of many flights and buses will depart that will continuously remove all those irregular immigrants who should not remain in our country,” declared Kast.

The first flight should take between 35 and 40 people to Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia. The government plans to carry out three flights a month, expelling around 120 people monthly and reaching the target of 1,400 deportations in a year.

Historically, Chile carries out charter flights for deportation without spectacularization. In specific operations, such as the “Colchane Plan” in 2021, around 138 migrants were expelled in a single day.

Simplistic association between migration and crime

Kast justified the deportations by claiming that Chile received “more than 300,000 undocumented immigrants, some of them linked to organized crime networks that introduced unprecedented levels of violence in Chile.”

Although there are cases of immigrants involved in criminal activities, the generalization stigmatizes millions of people who seek better living conditions in Chile. Human rights organizations warn that this rhetoric fuels xenophobia and diverts focus from the true causes of public insecurity.

It is estimated that there are between 300,000 and 337,000 illegally staying foreigners in Chile. The majority of those affected by expulsion decrees are of Venezuelan origin, followed by Colombians, Haitians, Peruvians and Bolivians.

“Border Shield”: walls and ditches against people

The president announced the implementation of the “Border Shield Plan”, which includes the installation of ditches, walls, surveillance technology and joint deployment of the Armed Forces and police on the northern border. Kast boasted that, in the first month of government, there was a “reduction in irregular entries” and “an increase in voluntary departures”.

The militarization of borders and the construction of physical barriers refer to failed policies in other regions of the world. Migration experts point out that walls do not impede the migratory flow, they only make it more dangerous, pushing immigrants onto more risky routes and strengthening human trafficking networks.

Neoliberal mega-reform disguised as “reconstruction”

While announcing the deportations, Kast also presented his economic “mega-reform”, called the “Bill for Economic and Social Reconstruction and Development”. The plan includes more than 40 measures, with emphasis on reducing corporate tax from 27% to 23% — what the left-wing opposition classified as a “disguised tax reform” that benefits the richest.

The overlapping of the announcement of deportations with neoliberal measures reveals a political tactic: creating smokescreens with sensitive topics to approve unpopular reforms.

Fall in popularity and contradictions

Kast faces a significant drop in popularity in the polls just a month after taking office. The sharp increase in fuel prices and the government’s refusal to adopt control measures angered the Chilean population.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed concerns about carrying out collective expulsions without adequate individual assessments. The Chilean government repeats the mistakes of other nations and ignores historical lessons about the devastating effects of institutionalized xenophobia.