The Trump administration has ended a temporary immigration program that protects thousands of migrants in the United States. The move could spell deportation for more than 300,000 Venezuelans who were previously allowed in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. The program allows migrants to seek shelter in America “due to conditions in the country that temporarily prevent the country’s nationals from returning safely,” according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. But following Trump’s decision, these Venezuelans could be deported back to the authoritarian regime from which they fled.
What migrants stand to lose
The removal will be published on Feb. 5 and is set to take place 60 days later. Ordered by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the document will leave the Venezuelans in question “vulnerable to potential deportation in the coming month,” said The New York Times. The 300,000 Venezuelans who had TPS removed had protections through April; an additional 250,000 have “protections through September and for now will not be affected,” but this initial move “suggests that they and others under TPS could be in danger of losing their status in the future.”
Once the TPS protections officially lapse, these migrants “lose their ability to work in the U.S. legally and become vulnerable to being detained and deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” said CBS News. Trump has said that Venezuela has “agreed to accept migrant deportees from the U.S., after rejecting American deportation flights for years.” But these orders “echo a broader crackdown by Mr. Trump on illegal immigration and humanitarian programs that allowed some migrants to come or stay in the U.S. legally.”
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A separate report from CBS News found that the Trump administration is planning on drafting similar orders to revoke temporary legal status from migrants of other countries. This includes Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua, all places from which migrants were allowed into the U.S. under former President Joe Biden.
Trump’s protection removal has “sent tremors through the Venezuelan community, as some face a possible return to a country whose regime has been dubbed illegal by the U.S.,” said NBC News. For many of these immigrants, going back to Venezuela “would be almost suicidal,” activist Beatriz Olavarria said to WTVJ-TV South Florida. Some of those with TPS that “have spoken about the situation in Venezuela on cameras and everywhere, they set foot in Venezuela and they will be jailed,” she added.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been widely cited as running an authoritarian government, and there are no plans to recognize him as the country’s legitimate leader, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview. The U.S. government is offering a $25 million reward for Maduro’s capture; this offer was enacted by the outgoing Biden administration and remains on the table under Trump.
As a result, many “human rights advocates and Venezuelan opposition politicians have warned against repatriating the citizens of a country that under Maduro has been an economically failing, politically repressive pariah state,” said The Washington Post. Despite this, deportations remain likely. “Yesterday ICE took a friend and her husband. There’s anguish,” Venezuelan migrant Tatiana Vazques said to Reuters.
