It is already a fact that at least for the 300,000 Venezuelans who benefited in 2023 and remain in the United States legally. Government documents to which you have had acousse The New York Times They confirm that Kristi Noem, the new Secretary of National Security, “has determined that Venezuela no longer continues to meet the conditions for the designation of 2023.” It is a sake for thousands of Venezuelans like Jackson Villamarín, who has his work permit until October, but will soon live with the fear of being an illegal emigrant.
“This affects thousands who have been expelled from our country for the dictatorship, repression, the policy full of corrupt,” says the Venezuelan, who amputated two fingers from his hand for dealing with the Chavista government when he worked in 2016 in 2016 The Cottoneros del Orinoco trade unionist company. Now he has felt the weight of terror again, but differently. “I live nervously for those raids,” he says, in reference to the hunting that agents of the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) have undertaken. “Many people do not want to leave their homes to work for fear of migration authorities.”
Once the Government makes the official announcement, Venezuelans will lose in 60 days the benefits that the TPS granted in 2023 is guaranteed. For now it is a measure that does not apply to the beneficiaries in 2021, a group of more than 250,000 Venezuelans that could also Be affected in the future, in the midst of the Republican mission to expel millions of emigrants from the country.
The decision of the senior official arrives, according to the documents obtained, “after reviewing the conditions of the country and considering whether to allow Venezuelan citizens covered by the designation of 2023 is contrary to the national interest of the United States, in consultation with the appropriate agencies of the United States government ”.
It is something that is not explained by emigration lawyer Willy Allen, who says that when the previous Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, justified it taking into account “the fraudulent elections of Venezuela, internal problems and lack of protection for Venezuelans in his country ”. “The new director is now saying that there are no reasons to continue it, and that these people have been here more time than they have to be, and therefore they must return now. Actually this new administration is saying that Venezuela’s conditions are normal, which can be deported. It’s the hardest thing I’ve heard, ”insists the lawyer.
The announcement comes only a few days after Nicolás Maduro was seen in a photo at the Miraflores Palace, in Caracas, shaking the hand of the official Richard Grenelll, sent by the administration of Donald Trump to dialogue with the Venezuelan and South American in The last months. Trump announced shortly after Venezuela, which until now did not receive deportation flights, agreed to accept “all Venezuelan illegal immigrants who were camped in the United States”, including members of the Aragua Train Group.
Although Trump has ruled out that conversations in Miraflores and is a possible understanding between the two, or an official recognition from the United States to the Maduro government, many Venezuelans criticize the republican’s turn, which promised to sustain a policy of “maximum pressure ”against Maduro. Even so, Trump has reaffirmed as “a great opponent of Venezuela and Maduro.” “We want to do something with Venezuela. They have not treated us very well, but what is more important, they have treated the Venezuelan people very bad, ”he said on Friday.
With the elimination of TPS, Trump could finally meet the purpose he had since his first term, when he tried to end the program that has provided protection to more than one million citizens of El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Sudan, Lebanon, Haiti and Venezuela. However, the proposal was then rejected in court. Some hope that, with a lawsuit, this last decision can also be reversed.
