Immigrants in Chile, particularly Venezuelans, say they are living under growing fear and hostility since the inauguration of far-right President José Antonio Kast, who took office in March pledging to expel the country's estimated 336,000 undocumented foreigners. Within his first month, Kast ordered the construction of walls and trenches along Chile's northern border, suspended a regularisation process affecting 182,000 migrants begun by his predecessor Gabriel Boric, and launched deportation flights — the first departing from Iquique (a port city in Chile's far north) carrying 40 people to Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador. Immigrants interviewed by Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo described avoiding public spaces, carrying documents at all times, and struggling to find work, with many reporting panic attacks and considering leaving the country, while analysts warn that increasingly restrictive policies tend not to reduce irregular migration but instead push people into greater precarity and the hands of criminal networks.