The Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday announced they were terminating TPS protections for Venezuelans. Photo by Annabelle Gordon/UPI | License Photo
The Trump administration is moving to end deportation protections for Venezuelans, threatening the legal status for hundreds of thousands of people in the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security announced it was ending Temporary Protected Status for Venezuela. The designation was set to expire Sept. 10, but will now be terminated in 60 days.
“Given Venezuela’s substantial role in driving irregular migration and the clear magnet effect created by Temporary Protected Status, maintaining or expanding TPS for Venezuelan nationals directly undermines the Trump administration’s efforts to secure our southern border and manage migration effectively,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Matthew Tragesser said in a statement.
The Biden administration designated Venezuela for TPS in March 2021, permitting Venezuelans in the United States protection from deportation and work eligibility, due to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in their home country.
In September that same year, the Biden administration expanded eligibility to some 600,000 Venezuelans already in the country.
Former President Joe Biden has twice attempted to extend the designation, including during his final days in office, but the Trump administration was quick to block that final extension in February.
President Donald Trump — who campaigned on mass deportations, often employing incendiary rhetoric and misinformation — has been attempting to end TPS for many of the previously designated countries, as part of his immigration crackdown.
Trump’s Department of Homeland Security argues that conditions in those nations no longer warrant continued TPS protections.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem “determined that conditions in Venezuela no longer meet the TPS statutory requirements,” the department said.
Meanwhile, some Democrats are accusing the Trump administration of turning a blind eye to the conditions in the Caribbean nation in order to deport more people.
“The Trump admin. is stripping TPS for Venezuelans in the U.S. and is claiming that conditions in Venezuela are not that bad,” Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, D-Fla., said on X.
“Meanwhile, Venezuelans are going hungry and without food and medicine under the Maduro regime. But apparently that’s good enough for Donald Trump.”
Venezuela has been a focus of Trump’s immigration policies. Trump has stated that the United States is under an “invasion” of drug cartels from the Caribbean nation in order to rapidly deport alleged gang members.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military conducted a controversial strike on a boat allegedly transporting drugs from Venezuela to the United States, killing 11 accused members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has moved to terminate TPS for seven nations, including Afghanistan, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua, resulting in legal challenges.
According to a Congressional Research report from December, more than 1 million people in the United States had TPS protections, including 256,600 Venezuelan nationals.
“Immigrants with Temporary Protected Status are our co-workers, union siblings and friends,” the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization trade union said in a statement in protest of the Trump administration’s move.
“Terminating TPS for 250,000 people from Venezuela won’t help workers. The Trump admin’s actions will tear families apart, put working people in harm’s way and disrupt our workplaces.”
