Trump administration cancels deportation protection extension for Venezuelans

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has suspended deportation protections to roughly 600,000 Venezuelans living in the U.S., reversing an extension provided under the Biden administration.

The order from Noem on Tuesday, signed the same day that she gave her opening remarks to staff at the Department of Homeland Security, affects various clusters of Venezuelans.

Former President Biden had given temporary protected status (TPS) — a protection from deportation for those unable to return to their country due to unrest or a natural disaster — to Venezuelans at multiple points during his administration.

In an interview Wednesday morning on Fox News, Noem again broadly referred to migrants as “dirtbags” and faulted the Biden administration for extending the protections.

Noem said the new order shows “we were not going to follow through on what he did to tie our hands, that we are going to follow the process, evaluate all of these individuals that are in our country, including the Venezuelans that are here.”

The order from Noem faults a “novel” approach from her predecessor, Alejandro Mayorkas, in extending the protection with his Jan. 10 order, calling his analysis “thin and inadequately developed.”

Mayorkas’s order effectively consolidated groups of Venezuelans who were given protections at different times.

With Noem’s vacatur, Venezuelans who were given TPS in 2021 will be able to remain in the country through September while those who received the protections in 2023 will be able to retain them through April.

“This is an outrage! Venezuela is currently a violent dictatorship. Thousands have fled to Florida to join family members here through the TPS Program,” Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) wrote on social platform X.

“They’re helping our economy and part of our community. This will be a death sentence to many.”

Under the leadership of President Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela has seen a massive exodus of its population.

At least 7.7 million people had fled the country as of last year, a figure various groups have estimated as being between 20 percent and 25 percent of the total population.

Maduro has been accused of obscuring his loss in the most recent presidential election, with Edmundo González currently recognized by the United States as Venezuela’s president-elect.

In addition to political unrest, the country is facing widespread food shortages.

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