What's happening to Venezuelans? Everything you should know about TPS
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem removed deportation protections for nearly 350,000 Venezuelans living in the U.S. as part of President Donald Trump's expanding immigration crackdown.
The decision means that as many as 348,000 Venezuelans eligible for Temporary Protected Status – more than half of all Venezuelans in the program – could lose their work permits and be deported in April, according to the termination notice.
Here's what to know about TPS and Venezuelans impacted by recent status changes.
What is Temporary Protective Status, and who has it?
Congress created Temporary Protective Status, or TPS, in 1990 to "establish a uniform system for granting temporary protection to people unable to return to their home countries because of a political or environmental catastrophe," according to the Library of Congress.
Since then, people who left countries impacted by environmental disasters or political turmoil can apply for TPS once their home country is designated, if they were already in the United States before a designated date.
What's happening to Venezuelans in the U.S.?
As of January 2025, some 607,000 Venezuelans who live in the U.S. were estimated to be covered by TPS, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Those who received their TPS designation after eligibility was expanded in 2023 will see their designation expire in April. They'll lose their right to work in the country and the protections that prevented them from being deported.
"We're talking about a lot of people that are living within this country, that are currently protected from deportation," Thomas Kennedy, a policy consultant with the Florida Immigration Coalition, FLIC, told Paste BN.
They "have access to work permits," he said. "They have their driver's licenses already."
Noem's decision "puts them in limbo," he said.
Why was the TPS designation terminated for Venezuela?
On January 28, less than two weeks after former Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas extended TPS for Venezuelans, Noem vacated the decision.
On February 5, Noem terminated the 2023 designation after the U.S. government decided "it is contrary to the national interest to permit the covered Venezuelan nationals to remain temporarily in the United States," according to the termination notice.
Not all TPS Venezuelans are affected
The termination does not apply to Venezuelans who registered under the 2021 designation, the notice stated. Their designation, which Mayorkas' decision would have also extended, is set to expire on Sept. 10, 2025.
Noem will have until July 12 to extend or terminate the status, per the National Law Review. If she doesn't make a decision, the status will automatically extend for another six months.
Are conditions better in Venezuela since TPS was granted?
In January 2021, Trump designated Venezuela for Deferred Enforced Departure, DED, which protected Venezuelans from being deported, according to the Library of Congress.
Venezuelans have been living under the autocratic regime of Nicolás Maduro for more than a decade amid runaway inflation, worsening poverty and widespread political persecution, according to the Washington Office on Latin America., a progressive think tank in Washington, D.C.
Since the 2021 TPS designation, humanitarian conditions in Venezuela have only worsened, according to Kennedy. Because of this, FLIC believes Venezuelans should be allowed to stay in the United States.
An "objective, fair observer" can see that Venezuela's government is oppressive, said Kennedy.
After Venezuela's July 2024 presidential election, the report submitted to the Human Rights Council in Geneva documented a "pattern of escalated human rights violations committed by Venezuelan security forces, government officials, and pro-government armed civilian groups, known as 'colectivos,'" according to the United Nations.
"Venezuela is under no condition socially, politically and economically to take back these migrants," said Kennedy. "The Temporary Protected Status is merited to them."
The Trump administration has restarted deportation flights to Venezuela.
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Countries granted TPS
Venezuelans are not the only immigrants eligible for TPS. Noem's decision has just put this group in the spotlight.
In total, people from 17 countries are currently eligible for TPS, depending on when they arrived. They include people from:
- Afghanistan
- Cameroon
- El Salvador
- Ethiopia
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Lebanon
- Burma (Myanmar)
- Nepal
- Nicaragua
- Somalia
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Syria
- Ukraine
- Venezuela
- Yemen
Reuters contributed to the reporting of this story.
Julia is a trending reporter for Paste BN. You can connect with her on LinkedIn, follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, Instagram and TikTok: @juliamariegz, or email her at jgomez@gannett.com