Americans are getting older, and there aren’t enough working-age citizens to replace retirees, creating a labor shortage in the United States. In an effort to fill job vacancies, the Biden administration offered around 472,000 Venezuelan migrants temporary deportation relief and work permits back in September. But the president announced in early October that Venezuelans will be deported once again.

Straight Arrow News contributor Peter Zeihan notes that Venezuelan migrants aren’t seeking work in the manual labor sectors that the U.S. needs, which is why they may not serve as a viable solution to address the current labor shortage.

An excerpt from Zeihan’s Oct. 16 “Zeihan on Geopolitics” newsletter:

Today, we’re peeling back another layer of the U.S. immigration onion – Venezuelan immigrants. Since Hugo Chavez took power in the late 90s, Venezuela has been spiraling into a political and economic crisis, so fleeing the failing state is the best option. (The damage inflicted was so deep, and his successor so incompetent, that Chavez’s death didn’t help at all.)

These aren’t the typical low-skilled immigrants showing up at the southern border; these Venezuelans are highly skilled and educated. This begs the question – could this be the solution to the US labor shortage? The short answer is no, at least until immigration reform occurs.

But the long and treacherous journey these Venezuelans make isn’t for economic reasons; it’s simply to avoid starving to death in their home country. The dynamics of the southern U.S. border are changing, and Mexico’s role will also evolve.