Biden administration offers 300k Venezuelans temporary legal status

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• The Biden administration said on Monday that it would provide Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to thousands of Venezuelans currently staying in the US.
• The TPS would be offered to about 320,000 undocumented Venezuelans living in the US as of March 8.
• In recent years, millions of Venezuelans have departed their country due to the political and economic crisis.

With the ongoing political-economic chaos in Venezuela, the White House announced on Monday that it would provide deportation relief and work permits to thousands of Venezuelan immigrants living in the US.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas released an order mandating qualified Venezuelans to go under Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The order allows the federal government to implement humanitarian protection efforts to immigrants whose home countries are experiencing armed violence, natural disasters, an epidemic, or to those who are simply unable to safely return to their homeland.

“The designation is due to the extraordinary and temporary conditions in Venezuela, which is one of the statutory bases for it… Because of conditions there, it is not safe for Venezuelans to return,” a senior White House official told reporters Monday.

The TPS program would apply to unauthorized immigrants who have been staying in the US as of March 8, as first reported by the Los Angeles Times. According to senior officials, around 320,000 Venezuelans would qualify for the scheme. Those who wish to work will be given six months to settle the application processing worth $545.

While campaigning for the presidency, President Joe Biden pledged to provide TPS to Venezuelans “seeking relief from the humanitarian crisis brought on by the Maduro regime.”

There are around 5.4 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants scattered across the world, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said.

An advocate of the TPS legislation for Venezuelans, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ.) lauded Biden’s decree on Monday, saying that the act delivers a “powerful signal to allies and competitors that the United States is once again committed to the cause of democracy.”

Venezuela has been in the middle of political and economic turmoil in recent years that has led to the mass evacuations of its citizens. Most of them have migrated to Colombia and other South American countries. The Colombian government said last week that it would provide temporary legal status to thousands of Venezuelans residing in their country.

During his term, former President Donald Trump pushed to terminate several TPS designations in his bid to abolish deportation relief programs and mitigate immigration efforts such as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative.

The previous US administrations opted to distance themselves against the growing dictatorial ruling of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro continues to sit as Venezuela’s Commander-in-Chief despite a political challenge by Juan Guaidó, whom the US and other Western nations acknowledged as the legitimate interim president.

In the coming weeks, the White House will review the policy provisions made during the Trump presidency as Biden seeks to go in contrast to the previous administration’s unilateral “maximum pressure” campaign.

Source: CBS News