The announced death of the TPS: the Trump government withdraws the protection of thousands of Venezuelans | Immigration in the United States

The news that many feared is already served in the Republican banquet: Donald Trump has canceled the extension of the temporal protection status (TPS) that for years has benefited some 600,000 Venezuelans in the United States. If the newspaper a few days ago The New York Times He advanced the possible revocation to the extension that Joe Biden made in January, now it is already a fact that the new government has no intention of leaving those who entered with temporary residence permits in the country. It is not an isolated announcement, but part of its efforts to fulfill its promise of the greatest deportation in history, together with the previous elimination of programs such as the humanitarian parole or CBP One, discarded once Trump set foot in the White House for Make this “the golden era of America.”

It was in 2021 when the Biden Democratic government opened the program to Venezuelan citizens. In 2023, he extended it for 18 more months. Now, Venezuelans beneficiaries in 2021 will have the protection of the TPS until September. Those who obtained it in 2023, will see the benefits until April of this year.

In an attempt to clear doubts, on Tuesday the Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem, confirmed in an interview in Fox News that there would be no more TPS for Venezuelans. “The exclusive announcement is that we are withdrawing the temporary status directive for Venezuelans,” he said in contrast to the decision of his predecessor in the position, Alejandro Mayorkas, who in January announced the extension for another 18 months of the program that has protected the Venezuelans who have fled in mass during the last decade due to the economic and political crisis in the South American country.

“Before leaving, Mayorkas signed an order that says that for 18 months they were going to extend this protection to people who are in temporary protection status, which means that they were going to stay here and violate our laws for another 18 months and we stopped it ”Said Noem in the interview. “Today we sign an executive order within the National Security Department indicating that we will not continue with what he did to tie us hands.”

The senior official, who must make the decision public before Saturday, February 1, also explained that the new order will allow federal agents to evaluate all these individuals who are in the country, including Venezuelans who are here and the members of the ADD (Aragua Train) ”, the criminal band in Trump’s sights, some of whose members were arrested in the first raids of January.

The disseminated information states that Mayorkas made the decision to extend the TPS to Venezuelans “too soon” and that it should not remain in force “given the extremely brief period” in which it was decreed. In statements to the newspaper The New York Timesan official of the National Security Department said that this “last extension of the last moment by the Biden administration seemed to be a way to tie the hands of Trump’s officials.”

Since 1990 when Congress started the TPS program, about one million people from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Sudan, Lebanon, Haiti and Venezuela remain legally in US territory under this protection that , although it does not facilitate the way to citizens, it guarantees them a work permit.

Trump wanted to get rid of the TPS program since his first term. Although at that time he tried to eliminate him, he did not come out airy. So far there have been no news of whether this revocation could also affect, for example, the 234,000 Salvadorans who are protected until September 2026, or the 103, .000 Ukrainians and 1,900 Sudanese who also remain in the country with these benefits . What is now raised as a question is what they will do or in what legal limbo the thousands of Venezuelans will be living with TPS. The cancellation of this measure also raises suspicions about whether the raids will include legal immigrants, to whom the country itself allowed the entrance.

What is a reality for almost two weeks of republican administration is that Trump is seriously with the persecution of immigrants, and has even asked to increase the figures of daily arrests to between 1,200 and 1,500. In Noem’s statements to Fox News, the Secretary of National Security boasted from the gratitude that, according to her, many Americans feel in cities like New York against the raids in charge of ICE agents: “The people of this country want these debates are carried out. They want their communities to be safe. It was incredible to me to see people pass by our side on the early street in the morning and simply say thanks, thanks for being here. ”