Biden: 'Not rational' to repatriate Venezuelan, Cuban, Nicaraguan migrants

President Joe Biden on Tuesday dismissed the prospect of repatriating illegal migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua amid an unprecedented migrant surge.

"What's on my watch now is Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, and the ability to send them back to those states is not rational," he said, according to Fox News.

Migrant encounters cleared 2 million for a single fiscal year for the first time this month. Moreover, August encounters alone topped 200,000. Humanitarian disasters from smuggling attempts and risky crossings has led the United Nations International Organization for Migration to label the southern border the "deadliest land crossing in the world."

Biden fielded questions from reporters asking as to the reasons for the surge. "Because there are three countries," was his reply.

He then highlighted the contrast between dealing with Mexican border crossers and those from Central America, saying "[t]here are fewer and fewer immigrants coming from Central America than from Mexico. It’s a totally different circumstance."

Many Latin American nations from which the migrants hail experience extreme poverty, as well as other humanitarian crises and political repression. Left-wing dictatorships govern both Venezuela and Cuba. Formerly the richest country in Latin America, Venezuela has become one of its poorest after decades of socialism.