The United States government, through the Department of State, imposed sanctions on Nicaraguans who “facilitate illegal migration” to the United States, in accordance with the new visa-restriction policy announced earlier this year.
The sanctions include owners, executives, and high-ranking officers of transportation companies, travel agencies, and tour operators that have provided services for the irregular migration of people seeking to reach the U.S. However, the names of the individuals sanctioned have not been disclosed.
“Investigations indicate that the entities these individuals represent facilitated travel through Nicaragua, enabled by the deliberately permissive migration policies of the Nicaraguan dictatorship, which destabilize the region and fuel illegal immigration to the United States. The Department is revoking currently valid visas and imposing additional restrictions to ensure that these individuals cannot enter the United States,” U.S. authorities stated.
“A senior State Department official said, ‘The United States is taking decisive action to confront the Murillo-Ortega dictatorship for its deliberate role in enabling illegal immigration through Nicaragua. By revoking visas and imposing restrictions on those who facilitated these operations, we are dismantling their permissive migration policies and sending a clear message: we will not tolerate efforts that undermine U.S. laws, destabilize our region, or threaten our national security.’”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, last March, when announcing the new visa restriction policy, explained that it would apply to “foreign government officials, including immigration and customs officers, airport and port authorities, and others deemed responsible for knowingly facilitating illegal immigration to the United States.”
He also warned that they will even punish those who facilitate irregular migration to that country through “omission,” by failing to enforce “immigration laws or the establishment and implementation of policies and practices that knowingly enable the transit of foreign nationals intending to immigrate illegally.”
The Trump Administration, since taking office in January of this year, has toughened the United States’ immigration policies, although the new visa restrictions it announced in March through the Department of State actually continue the work previously carried out by his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Biden Administration began the visa-restriction policy
Former President Biden, in 2024, also applied similar sanctions, targeting officials and including private transportation companies, among them charter airlines, land, and maritime transport.
Also of interest: U.S. sanctions Venezuelan airline Conviasa, which began flights to Nicaragua in November 2018 and brings Cubans to Managua for shopping
In March 2024, the United States banned the entry of executives from charter flight companies that operated routes which, according to U.S. authorities, facilitated irregular migration to the country.
And six months later, in September 2024, it imposed visa restrictions on senior officials of a European charter flight company, also accused of facilitating irregular migration to the United States through Nicaragua.
“These ongoing actions by the United States respond to the growing trend of charter airlines offering flights to Nicaragua primarily designed for irregular migrants,” the U.S. Department of State stated in September of last year, without specifying the name of the company.
