TPS

A group of Latino Miami-Dade Democrats is calling out “four traitorous Republican Cuban-American politicians” — with a billboard ad campaign — for failing to protect tens of thousands of immigrants in South Florida from being deported under the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement policies.

These policies won’t just affect Venezuelan and Haitian TPS holders personally. It will likely cause some big waves in the Florida economy.

Florida leads the nation in the number of immigrants with TPS at 341,000. The termination of TPS could impact Florida's education and healthcare industries.

The order by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco is a relief for 350,000 Venezuelans whose Temporary Protected Status was set to expire April 7 after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reversed protections granted by the Biden administration.

In a symbolic move, the Miami-Dade County School Board on Wednesday approved a resolution to press the Trump administration and Congress to create new legal pathways for immigrants from Venezuela and Haiti who are losing their temporary immigration status.

The Democratic lawmaker say the “abrupt removal of over 500,000 workers will have an immense and irreparable impact on businesses across the country and the economy at large,” noting that collectively they contribute annually $2.3 billion in federal taxes and $1.3 billion in state and local taxes.

The Trump administration has revoked temporary protected status, or TPS, for more than 300,000 Venezuelans in the United States, leaving the population vulnerable to potential deportation in the coming months, according to government documents obtained by The New York Times.

The Department of Homeland Security says about 600,000 Venezuelans and more than 200,000 El Salvadorans already living in the United States can legally remain another 18 months. Florida is home to nearly 300,000 TPS holders, the largest number in the nation.

TPS is not a permanent legal status but protects against deportation, allows migrants to get a work permit, and sometimes travel authorization.

Advocates have been pushing the federal government for years on the work permit issue, but the administration is negotiating with Senate Republicans a compromise that would enforce stricter immigration policies to secure more money for Ukraine and Israel.

The Baez family felt they had little choice but to leave their home country of Venezuela after their own personal safety was at risk. The decision to leave everything behind and start from scratch began a journey of both uncertainty and possibility.

Mayors, governors and others have been forceful advocates for newly arrived migrants seeking shelter and work permits. However, their efforts and existing laws have exposed tensions among immigrants who have been in the country for years.