Colombia’s Border Czar Stands Against the Anti-Migrant Tide

BOGOTÁ, Colombia—Felipe Muñoz’s cellphone rang about every five minutes as we talked in his 15th-floor apartment overlooking the Andes mountains. It was the local head of the UN refugee agency. Then the governor of a border state. Then a mayor. Then the leader of an NGO.

Hundreds of Venezuelan military defectors housed along Colombia’s border were unhappy because they had been told their hosts would soon stop paying for their accommodations. The callers wanted to know what was happening, why things had changed, and how the government would help them going forward. For Muñoz, the evening was only slightly more exciting than most—another small political crisis that finds its way to Colombia’s border manager as Venezuela collapses next door, driving thousands of struggling migrants into Colombia every day for the past few years.

Muñoz has now spent 16 months through two presidential administrations leading his nation’s efforts to respond to the migration crisis. He is upbeat, though there