President Trump’s decision this week to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) extension for Venezuelans is a "devastating" blow to that community, expats tell WLRN — especially since the situation they'd potentially be sent back to in Venezuela looks as repressive as ever.
Like almost 600,000 other Venezuelan migrants, Daniela — who asked that her last name not be used to protect her identity — was granted Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, in recent years, in her case in the spring of 2021.
TPS allows undocumented foreign nationals whose home countries are mired in natural or social disaster to remain in the U.S. without fear of deportation. Because of Venezuela’s brutal political and economic crisis, that status has since been renewed for expats like Daniela every 18 months — including this month, before President Biden left office.
As a result, Daniela — who recently received a U.S. college degree and works in a South Florida medical clinic — said she was blindsided by the Trump Administration's sudden announcement on Wednesday that it will cancel that Venezuelan TPS extension for a large bloc of Venezuelan recipients if not all of them. She fears it means she will soon lose TPS.
“We're devastated," she said. "I start crying when I think about it because I didn’t expect that. That was really, really bad. I’m in shock. You feel like a criminal, like, if you are an immigrant, you are a criminal in their eyes."
Daniela was referring in part to Trump's sweeping initiative to deport undocumented migrants — but also to comments Trump's Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, made this week when she announced the rollback of TPS extension for Venezuelans.
Noem falsely asserted that Venezuelans here under TPS "violate our laws."
"I'm all for deporting any migrant here who is a criminal," Daniela stressed, pointing as an example to the members of the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua who have entered the U.S. and have committed violent crimes in cities like New York and Aurora, Colorado.
"But if Tren de Aragua is the reason they're taking away TPS for every hardworking, taxpaying Venezuelan TPS recipient like me," said Daniela, who came to the U.S. a decade ago on a student visa that eventually expired, "it's not right to lump us into the same bag as them."
READ MORE: South Florida lawmakers: Venezuela's 'still not safe' for nationals with TPS to return
She asked why Trump would send so many Venezuelans back to their home country’s demonstrably dangerous conditions.
Venezuela is still suffering the worst humanitarian crisis in modern South American history — and almost 8 million have left the country in the past decades.
Meanwhile, the regime of its dictatorial socialist president, Nicolás Maduro, has cracked down severely on dissent since he stole last summer's presidential election, with some 2,000 people thrown in prison, including minors.
“For example, right now I don’t have a valid Venezuelan passport, and it's next to impossible to secure one given the consular situation," Daniela said.
"And people who have their Venezuelan documents expired that are coming back into Venezuela, they’re getting in trouble" because they're considered suspect by the country's dictatorship.
"But Trump doesn’t seem to care what’s going to happen to them. It's almost like he's saying, 'Well, Biden gave you this [TPS] extension, so I have to show I can take it away," she said.
Republican lawmakers agree
This week even Miami’s Republican congressional delegation said in a statement that it’s “still not safe” for many Venezuelans here to return to Venezuela.
"Many Venezuelans have arrived in our country and have integrated into our communities, respecting our laws and contributing to the prosperity of our great country," the joint statement from U.S. Rep's. Mario Diaz-Balart, Maria Elvira Salazar and Carlos Jimenez said.
"We will continue to do everything possible to ensure that those seeking freedom from persecution and oppression are protected."
It was unclear whether that meant the Miami Congress members will lobby Trump and Noem to restore the Venezuelan TPS extension Biden issued earlier this month.
Many Venezuelans, especially in South Florida, home to the largest Venezuelan diaspora in the U.S., had assumed Trump would act more favorably toward them since, in his first presidency, he worked actively to try to bring down Venezuela's regime.
Meanwhile, Daniela, like many other Venezuela TPS holders, says she is meeting with her immigration attorney this week to evaluate her options.
"Do you stay here illegally now, do you surrender to deportation, do you find another country to go to since you can't go back to Venezuela?" she asked.
"I thought this month, like, 'Oh wow, I'm safe from all that for the time being.' To be honest, this feels like hell."
Immigration experts say Trump is also expected to target TPS for other nationalities, including Haitians.
