Last week, Venezuela occupied, once again, an important space in the U.S. legislative agenda.
The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations unanimously and bipartisanly approved the VERDAD Law—acronym for Venezuela Emergency Relief, Democracy Assistance, and Development Act. The following is a summary of the provisions of the VERDAD Law project:
(1) It reiterates support for the Interim President of Venezuela and recognizes the National Assembly as the only democratically elected and legitimate power. At the same time, it indicated that the U.S. politic should seek a pacific and diplomatic solution to the Venezuelan crisis. That means this project fortunately dismisses the vociferated military intervention. In fact, it establishes that nothing in this law project can be considered as an authorization for the use of military force against Venezuela.
(2) It increments the new Venezuelan humanitarian aid to $400 million. This humanitarian assistance principally complements the more than $100 million that the Colombian government has received and administered so far to attend the migratory crisis of Venezuelan refugees at the border. Certainly, this help could enter directly to the country to deal with the crisis if either the regime agrees to it (in the case there were a political agreement while Maduro remains in charge) or after it ceases.
(3) The legislation proposes actions against Maduro’s kleptocracy such as:
a. Prohibits granting and obligates revoking visas to the family members of sanctioned individuals, and establishes exceptions to lift visa restrictions.
b. Authorizes the removal of sanctions for sanctioned officials who are not involved in human rights violations and recognize Interim President Guaidó.
c. Requires the Department of State to work jointly with Latin American and European governments to implement these sanctions for these countries.
(4) Finally, the legislative project proposes support for the reconstruction of Venezuela, among other measures:
a. Requires that the Departments of State, Treasury, and Justice make international efforts to freeze, recover, and reuse fraudulent funds of government officials.
b. Accelerates planning with international financial institutions for the economic reconstruction of Venezuela once democracy is restored.
The VERDAD Law Project was prepared and led by the Democrat U.S. Senator from New Jersey, Bob Menéndez, with the support and co-authorship of the Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Marco Rubio. It must be said that in its first version, Menéndez proposed to include a chapter dedicated to resolving the migratory situation of the Venezuelans who had been displaced toward the United States because of the crisis, and are now undocumented or in a vulnerable migratory situation.
Menéndez’s proposal consists in extending, through special legislative action, a Temporary Protective Status (TPS) to Venezuelans. Such provisions did not receive support from Republican Senators, who are still the majority in both the Upper House and the Committee on Foreign Relations. Therefore, Menéndez agreed to remove that content and instead present or propose it in a separate Law project only subscribed by Democratic Senators with the exception of support from one Republican, Senator Rubio.
Now, the future of the VERDAD Law exclusively depends on the Republican majority in the Senate. First, the Senate Republican majority leader Mitch McConnel must present it in the Upper House plenary, and then receive the favorable vote from the majority of the Senators. The latter seems to be absolutely viable. What remains unclear is whether McConnel will prioritize the discussion of this project in plenary.
The TPS project presented by Senator Menéndez is yet to be considered in either the Senate or one of its Committees that address such matters; like it happened last week with the legislative initiative led by Democrat U.S. Congressman from Florida, Darren Soto, in the House of Representatives.
In essence, and simplistically, the TPS is a provisional and temporary migratory status that prohibits the deportation of migrants who benefit from the measure, allowing them a work permit.
Congressman Soto’s project was introduced with bipartisan support (from Republican U.S. Congressman from Florida, Mario Díaz Balart), and was first discussed in the House Committee on the Judiciary. There, Democratic members of Congress promoted the project, among whom the voice and leadership of U.S. Congresswoman from Florida, born in Ecuador, Debbie Mucarsel-Powerll stood out. She said that lawmakers have had to take the path of a law to address this aspect of the Venezuelan humanitarian crisis, represented by migrants displaced to the U.S., mostly concentrated in Miami and Houston. This legislative effort, just like the Democratic legislator pointed out, has become indispensible given the Trump administration’s refusal to grant it through an executive order. In the Lower House, where there is a Democratic majority, the TPS project received support from all congress members of that Party in the Committee (20 total). Meanwhile, not a single Republican supported the project. Nine voted against it, and the rest of the members did not show up for the voting.
According to a report from the Washington Post, in which an email exchange between White House officials was revealed, Trump’s team dismissed the TPS matter months ago. The report exposed that the officials who opposed the protection status for Venezuelans feared the impact of such a decision on Trump’s political base, which vehemently assumes the president’s discourse against Latino immigration. This intention has already resulted in the first executive orders revoking the TPS to countries in Central America and other regions, as well as the cruel policies such as the deportation and separation of families seeking refuge or displaced towards the border due to the crisis in the Central American Northern Triangle. The report also referenced a discussion stating that an official was aware that extending the TPS could weaken the message intended for the Maduro regime of a “credible military threat.”
All this information leads to two possible conclusions: First, the threat of a military invasion was never really under consideration, except when used as a rhetoric to induce a “break” in the military forces that still hold the Maduro regime afloat. Second, Trump’s advisors’ vision of a possible shortcut solution to the devastating crisis in Venezuela has ended up slowing (and hindering) the adoption of the essential humanitarian measure of the TPS for Venezuelans who are displaced or exposed to deportation in the U.S. This is an irresponsible and inexcusable indifference, given the magnitude of the crisis and the oppression that exists in Venezuela.
There are at least 150 thousand undocumented Venezuelans in Florida, exposed to deportation and unable to legally work in the U.S. These people are overqualified to contribute to both their families still in Venezuela (with remittances) and the U.S. economy, which has lots of job openings and work or entrepreneurship opportunities. On the other hand, more than 70 thousand Venezuelans are pending asylum requests throughout the U.S. These people are far from getting a timely response, given that they have grown at a rate of more than 10 thousand a year since the crisis in Venezuela. Finally, there are hundreds of families with vulnerable migrant status, young dreamers who came to the U.S. as minors and have successfully studied in the country and are ready to enter the labor market, but lack the legal possibility to do so. Many of them arrived to the United States when they were minors with their parents in one of the first migratory landmarks of the last two decades (2002, 2005, 2014, and every year since 2017).
The Republican posture of not wanting to grant the TPS to Venezuelans (promoted from the White Hosue) is both cruel and contradictory to recognizing a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. Back in 2017, the then U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) issued a letter to the Department of Homeland Security requesting the National Executive to decree, as authorized by law, the TPS for Venezuelans. 22 Democratic lawmakers, many of them members of the National Hispanic Caucus, supported Nelson’s proposal. The following is an excerpt from the letter:
“As conditions there continue to deteriorate at the hands of Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro, we urge you to grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to all eligible Venezuelans currently in the United States.
Congress created TPS in 1990 in order to provide safe haven to individuals in the U.S. whose home countries are suffering from armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other extraordinary conditions which prevent them from returning home safely, when doing so is not contrary to the national interest. The situation in Venezuela is dire and clearly meets this standard.”
Two things draw attention to that letter, dated August 29, 2017. The first is the clarity with which the tribunes of the Democratic Party approach the tragedy of our country. “Maduro,” they say without hesitation, “persists in his deliberate march toward imposing a corrupt, one-party dictatorship and the Venezuelan people continue to suffer from extreme shortages of food, medical supplies, and other staple products. Additionally, the Maduro regime routinely targets Venezuelans in the U.S. as ‘traitors’ and ‘imperialists,’ raising unique concerns for their safety if returned. It is no wonder that Venezuelans became the top U.S. asylum-seekers in 2016.”
The second consideration that positively stands out in this Democratic letter is the way they refer to the quality of the Venezuelan migration. According to the legislators, the concession of a TPS to Venezuelans already residing in the U.S. “is also in line with our national interest. Venezuelans in the U.S. have not just become a vibrant part of our communities, but have also made important contributions including as lawyers, doctors, and small-business owners.”
It is imperative to extend temporal migratory protection to Venezuelans who are faced with a difficult visualization of a viable and responsible short-term solution to the grave crisis. It is inexplicable that the Republican Party (and the Trump administration) does not join in on the efforts that Democrats have consistently proposed of granting a TPS or migratory relief.