Trump Administration Evokes Protected Status For Venezuelans

President Donald Trump‘s administration announced on Wednesday that it was removing the protection from deportation for over 600,000 Venezuelans living in the United States, citing criminal activity by a select group of migrants.

“The people of this country want these dirt-bags out. They want their communities to be safe,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said as she announced the decision on Fox News.

“We are going to follow the process, evaluate all of these individuals that are in our country,” she said.

Former president Joe Biden had extended temporary protected status, or TPS, for another 18 months just days before Trump returned to the White House last week pledging to carry out a mass deportation of migrants.

The United States grants TPS to foreign citizens who cannot safely return home because of war, natural disasters, or other “extraordinary” conditions.

Trump sought to end the program during his first term but was stymied by legal opposition.

Trump campaigned, highlighting criminal incidents by undocumented migrants, although statistically immigrants are less likely to commit crime than native-born Americans.

Biden’s administration had expanded TPS to cover more than a million people from El Salvador, Sudan, Ukraine, Venezuela, and other selected nations to allow them to remain legally in the United States.

On day one of his second term, Trump ordered a review of TPS designations via an executive order titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.”

According to the Pew Research Center, as of March 2024 there were 1.2 million people eligible for or receiving TPS in the United States, with Venezuelans making up the largest group.

Under Biden, the department said TPS for the Venezuelans was being extended because of the “severe humanitarian emergency the country continues to face due to political and economic crises under the inhumane Maduro regime.”

Nicolas Maduro was sworn into office in January for a third term as Venezuela’s president.

The United States does not recognise his election victory and has offered a $25 million reward for his arrest over narco-trafficking charges.

Trump has vowed a hard line against Maduro and other Latin American leftists, winning support from some Venezuelan-Americans despite his stance on immigration.