Trump administration revokes deportation protections for Venezuelans in the United States

[Demovictory9]

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article299357564.html


By Syra Ortiz Blanes,
 
Antonio Delgado,
 
Veronica Egui,
 
Michael Wilner and
 
Jacqueline Charles
January 29, 2025 9:24 AM


The Trump administration is revoking deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

During an interview with Fox and Friends on Wednesday morning, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that she has rescinded an 18-month extension of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuela that President Joe Biden had announced only days before leaving the White House. The New York Times first reported the roll back on Tuesday night.

TPS is a federal program that shields people from countries in turmoil from deportation and grants them work permits. There were 505,400 TPS approved recipients from Venezuela as of December 2024, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The decision could have devastating consequences in Florida, the state with the largest population of Temporary Protected Status recipients in the country. Almost 60% of the state’s beneficiaries of the federal program are from Venezuela.

The Department of Homeland Security is able to designate protected status after a review of conditions in the country involved. Previously, war, environmental disasters, and internal conflict have all led to TPS designations. But the protections are temporary, and they end unless Homeland Security extends them.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration renewed Venezuela’s TPS designation from April 2025 through October 2026, citing the humanitarian, economic and political crisis in the South American country.