Chile Expels 1,874 as Border Detections Fall 86%

By early October, Chile had carried out 1,874 expulsions of foreigners. Police detections of irregular entries fell 86% in January to July compared with a year earlier, according to figures reported alongside the government’s tenth expulsion flight under President José Antonio Kast. Detections dropped to 1,175 from 8,610. The government has made faster removals a pillar of its migration policy.

Expulsions and Entry Detections

The latest flight left Santiago airport at 1:25 a.m. on Saturday 10 October, carrying 56 people to their home countries. That group included 21 Colombians, 20 Bolivians and 15 Ecuadorians. Authorities removed 45 by administrative order and 11 by court order. Chile counts it as the tenth flight since Kast took office on 11 March.

A police report recorded 1,330 expulsions between January and July: 1,183 by administrative order and 147 by judicial order. Colombians formed the largest nationality group during that period, with 549 expulsions. The figures don't provide a nationality breakdown for all 1,874 people expelled so far in 2026, and they don't say how many of those removed had criminal records.

The National Migration Service reported 1,764 expulsions by 30 September, including 1,468 after Kast took office. On that date, a flight to Peru and Colombia carried 32 Colombians and eight Peruvians. An earlier flight, carrying 80 people on 24 May, brought the reported total to 780.

Chile's 2024 census counted 1,608,650 foreign-born residents, or 8.8% of the population. Venezuelans made up the largest group, numbering 669,408. The census figure describes the foreign-born population; it doesn't establish how many residents face expulsion orders. The government says it targets people with administrative or judicial expulsion orders. People with valid residency in Chile aren't affected.

Security Policy and Washington

Chile confirmed on 22 September that it had joined the U.S.-led Shield of the Americas anti-cartel coalition, launched by President Donald Trump in March. The coalition is described as a framework for voluntary coordination, including intelligence sharing, joint training and assistance with maritime surveillance. That reported move links Chile's security policy to Washington, alongside its migration agenda.

Chile is a close U.S. security partner and the only Latin American country in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program. Chileans can travel to the United States under that program. The reported removals concern people with expulsion orders, not people whose valid Chilean residency puts them outside the policy's scope.

A Faster-Removal Bill

The lower house passed a government bill to speed up expulsions further on 19 October. The Senate had yet to vote, and it wasn't known whether the current pace of one flight every few weeks would continue if the bill became law. The available figures document rising expulsions and sharply lower detections of irregular entries, but they don't establish why detections declined or detail the full nationality and criminal-record profile of those expelled.

Radio Agricultura, El Comercio (Ecuador), Servicio Nacional de Migraciones, BioBioChile, Emol and El Dínamo were listed among the sources for the figures. Chile ranked third of 14 in The Rio Times Latin America Power Index, with 63.6 points in its October 2026 edition.