On his second month in office, President Biden delivered on an important campaign promise to the Venezuelan diaspora: granting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in his first 100 days in office. On Monday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued a decree designating the country for TPS for 18 months, citing the “extraordinary conditions Venezuela that prevent nationals from returning safely, including a complex humanitarian crisis marked by widespread hunger and malnutrition, a growing influence and presence of non-state armed groups, repression, and a crumbling infrastructure.”
TPS can be extended to countries that fall into one or more of the three categories for designation: ongoing armed conflict, environmental disasters, or extraordinary and temporary conditions. The measure allows the U.S. government to grant provisional humanitarian protection to immigrants who cannot safely return to their home countries. “The living conditions in Venezuela reveal a country in turmoil, unable to protect its own citizens. It is in times of extraordinary and temporary circumstances like these that the United States steps forward to support eligible Venezuelan nationals already present here, while their home country seeks to right itself out of the current crises,” Secretary Mayorkas said. The TPS designation will offer deportation relief to qualifying Venezuelans and allow them to live and work in the United States legally for the next 18 months. The policy is expected to cover some 320,000 Venezuelans who have been living in the United States as of March 8, 2021.
In recent years, political, social and economic turmoil in Venezuelan has caused one of the worst displacement crises in the world. An estimated 4.5 million Venezuelans left the country since 2014, totaling some 5.4 million Venezuelan migrants and refugees currently living outside their home country. Last month, Colombia also granted Venezuelan migrants TPS, a move that was applauded by U.S. senior officials like Secretary of State Antony Blinken. In following suit, President Biden fulfilled a promise made to the Venezuelan community during the presidential campaign.
The designation has been praised by advocates and Democratic leaders who have spent years fighting for TPS for Venezuelans and were twice blocked by the previously Republican Senate. Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, a champion of Venezuela TPS legislation, thanked the Biden administration, calling the move a “powerful signal to allies and competitors that the United States is once again committed to the cause of democracy.”
The TPS designation is also meant to apply pressure on the authoritarian regime of Nicolas Maduro and will be coupled with additional multilateral sanctions and a continued call for free and fair democratic elections in Venezuela. “We’re working with the international community to increase pressure in a coordinated fashion and making clear that the only outcome of this crisis is a negotiation that leads to a democratic solution,” a Biden official said.
As longtime advocates of Venezuelan TPS, IQLatino thanks the Biden administration for this much needed and extraordinary move of solidarity with the Venezuelan community.
For more information on the Venezuela TPS designation and when are where to file for protected status, click here.