The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it has revoked the 2021 designation of temporary protected status (TPS) for Venezuelan migrants.
“Given Venezuela’s substantial role in driving irregular migration and the clear magnet effect created by Temporary Protected Status, maintaining or expanding TPS for Venezuelan nationals directly undermines the Trump Administration’s efforts to secure our southern border and manage migration effectively,” USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser said in a statement. “Weighing public safety, national security, migration factors, immigration policy, economic considerations, and foreign policy, it’s clear that allowing Venezuelan nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is not in America’s best interest.”
The status, initially set to expire on September 10, will now end 60 days after DHS publishes the change in the Federal Register.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem determined that the conditions in Venezuela no longer meet the requirements for TPS. Upon reviewing TPS with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services review of the conditions in Venezuela and in consultation with the Department of State, it was concluded that terminating the 2021 TPS designation is necessary for U.S. interests.
In May, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to revoke TPS for Venezuelan migrants while legal proceedings on the matter continued in other courts.
In March, U.S. District Court Judge Ed Chen blocked the Trump administration from revoking TPS. “The Court finds that the Secretary’s action threatens to: inflict irreparable harm on hundreds of thousands of persons whose lives, families, and livelihoods will be severely disrupted, cost the United States billions in economic activity, and injure public health and safety in communities throughout the United States,” Chen wrote. “At the same time, the government has failed to identify any real countervailing harm in continuing TPS for Venezuelan beneficiaries. Plaintiffs have also shown they will likely succeed in demonstrating that the actions taken by the Secretary are unauthorized by law, arbitrary and capricious, and motivated by unconstitutional animus.”
