Joined in the face of the crisis in Venezuela, the Resolutions Committee of the National Democratic Committee (DNC) unanimously passed the “Resolution to Strongly Support Efforts for the Return of Democracy to Venezuela and Assist Venezuelan Migrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS).” The resolution vote took place on August 22, during the DNC summer meeting in San Francisco, California. This powerful support commits all party members to prioritize pressures on representations in Congress, state legislatures, state governments, and majors with the end goal of not only to achieve immigration protection for Venezuelans but also to stop deportations of Venezuelans who have a vulnerable immigration status or are undocumented in the United States.
Attentive to both the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, on the situation of Human Rights in Venezuela and the figures that indicate that more than 4 million Venezuelans have emigrated, a group of Hispanic Democrats presented the resolution to the rest of the committee with the intention of aligning the efforts of the party. This group includes the president of the party, Tom Perez, and the Hispanic Caucus Finance Chair, Venezuelan-American Leopoldo Martínez.
This vote demonstrates the Democratic commitment to respond to Venezuelans’ priorities. Earlier this year, Chairman Perez recognized this importance: “Venezuela is suffering. My daughter worked in the Venezuela-Colombian border helping refugees, and saw first hand the humanitarian crisis.”
“There is no doubt Maduro must go,” he continued. “But it is not easy, especially if this administration abandons multilateralism to put pressure on a negotiated solution. And while he goes, we need to give a hand and uplift our sisters and brothers from Venezuela who are in the United States: we need to give them a TPS to weather the storm safely—and this administration is denying that possibility.”
The resolution resolved to support four Democratic efforts and priorities already underway:
- The work and legislative initiatives of the Democratic leadership in Congress, to pressure the Maduro regime and work closely with U.S. partners in the hemisphere to facilitate a transition to democracy through free and fair elections monitored by the international community.
- The cooperation and aid to assist in alleviating the humanitarian crisisexisting in both Venezuela and neighboring countries impacted by massive migration.
- The efforts of the Democratic congressional leadership to designate Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status (TPS)to, therefore, protect Venezuelan nationals who migrated to the U.S. given the humanitarian crisis.
- The work of the Democratic leadership in the Florida House and Senate to support the Venezuelan migrant community and stop their detention and deportations throughout the state, as well as from other states where large groups of Venezuelan migrants are living.
Mr. Martínez, who is the first Venezuelan-American to integrate the national leadership of either of the two main political parties in the United States and, additionally, served in the Venezuelan National Assembly, concluded by thanking the supporters of the resolution: “This is a very important resolution in general, but especially for me.” He explained that, in addition to addressing the humanitarian crisis, this resolution particularly encourages groups to grant TPS for Venezuelans. “The approval of the TPS is linked to the recognition of the humanitarian crisis, the serious human rights violations reported by High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet, and implicitly adds to the characterization of the Venezuelan oppressive regime, reinforcing international pressure to achieve democratic change in Venezuela. Meanwhile, the 150,000 Venezuelans who are in the United States waiting for asylum or with a vulnerable immigration status will be able to continue their lives without fear of being deported, work, and even financially support their family members still in Venezuela.”
Now that it has passed in the Resolutions Committee, it will be approved in the Party’s general session on Saturday, August 24.