Trump administration ends deportation protection for Venezuelan immigrants
WASHINGTON – The Trump administration revoked immigration protections for more than 600,000 Venezuelans in the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Wednesday.
Noem rescinded the protections that former President Joe Biden provided earlier this month, under a program called “Temporary Protected Status.” Biden's extension aimed to provide 18 months of protection from deportation and access to work permits.
"We stopped that," Noem told Fox News' "Fox & Friends." "We are going to follow the process, evaluate all of these individuals that are in our country, including the Venezuelans that are here."
Noem revoked the extension, meaning she still has to decide to extend or terminate temporary protected status for about half the Venezuelan population benefitting from the program by Feb 1, instead of spring 2026, according to Aaron Reichlin-Melinick, senior fellow at the nonpartisan American Immigration Council.
"If Noem chooses to terminate the Venezuelan TPS designation that will suddenly be set to expire in April again, that could mean around 300,000 people would lose their jobs and deportation protections in a single day," he said in a post on the social media site X. "Another 300,000 would be set to lose the same in September."
Noem had participated in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest Tuesday in New York City of a suspected member of the Tren De Aragua gang from Venezuela.
President Donald Trump had vowed to end Temporary Protected Status for most immigrants as part of his crackdown on migrants who entered the country without legal authorization.
Temporary Protected Status is typically available to people arriving from countries that had a natural disaster or military conflict. Biden had expanded it to cover 1 million people from 17 countries.
Former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas extended the status for Venezuelans days before Trump took office despite the protections not expiring until April for some enrollees and September for others. The extension was based on a "humanitarian emergency" from the "political and economic crises" in Venezuela, according to the department.
The protections were also extended for people from El Salvador, Ukraine and Sudan. The adminstration's actions did not appear to affect their status.
Contributing: Lauren Villagran
(This story has been updated to add new information.)