The Biden administration will resume deportations of migrants to Venezuela, two US officials told the Associated Press on Thursday.

The trial is expected to begin soon, officials said, although they did not provide specific details on when

the flights would begin to take off

. The officials were not authorized to reveal details of the government plan ahead of an official announcement and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The news comes not long after the government increased protected status for Venezuelans coming to the US. It reflects President Biden’s broader strategy to not only provide expanded legal routes for people arriving, but also crack down on those entering the country illegally from Mexico.

Venezuela has been plunged into a political, economic and humanitarian crisis over the past decade, forcing at least 7.3 million people to migrate and making food and other necessities unaffordable for those who remain.

The vast majority who fled settled in neighboring Latin America, but many came to the United States in the past three years through the notoriously dangerous Darien Gap, a stretch of jungle in Panama.

It’s the latest effort to address the growing number of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, as the administration comes under increasing pressure from Republicans and mayors from the president’s own party to do more to delay the arrival of migrants.

US leaders were in Mexico this week to discuss migration. US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met on Wednesday with his Mexican counterpart, Alicia Brcena, as well as the foreign ministers from Panama and Colombia. The talks were expected to continue Thursday, including a meeting between U.S. Atty. General Merrick Garland and Mexican President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador.

Lpez Obrador said during his daily news briefing on Thursday that Mexico has reiterated in talks its position that investments should be made to boost development in the countries migrants are leaving.

People are not leaving their cities because they want to, but rather out of necessity, the president said. He also criticized the Biden administration’s announcement Wednesday that it would waive 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow border wall construction. Lpez Obrador had praised Biden for not building more border wall during his presidency.

New York Mayor Eric Adams, who is also dealing with a large influx of migrants, traveled through Latin America to learn about the paths migrants take to the US and to spread a message about the reality of arriving in his city.

He was scheduled to meet Thursday morning with a nun who runs a migrant shelter in Mexico City before heading to the city of Puebla, the source of many of the Mexican migrants arriving in New York, to meet with migrants and community leaders.

At a news conference late Wednesday evening in Mexico City, Adams said he hopes to live up to the expectations of migrants setting out to travel, informing migrants that his city was at full capacity after receiving about 120,000 migrants in the past year.

He echoed a growing number of voices in calling for a greater global response to the rising number of migrants to the US

It’s not sustainable, Adams said at the foot of a basilica where people often pray before traveling. The message that this is not sustainable cannot remain within the confines of New York City. There is global migration, and there needs to be an international response.

Blinken and other top US officials are visiting Mexico to discuss shared security issues, including mainly the trade in the synthetic opioid fentanyl, but also the arms trade and increasing migration.

In August, U.S. Border Patrol made 181,509 apprehensions at the Mexican border, a 37% increase from July, but little change from August 2022 and well below the more than 220,000 in December, according to figures released in September.

The U.S. has been trying to reach Mexico and countries further south to do more. In April, the US, Panama and Colombia announced a campaign to slow migration through the Darien Gap, which divides Colombia and Panama. But migration through the jungle has accelerated and is expected to reach about 500,000 people this year.