Trump revokes protected status for Venezuelans in US

President Donald Trump's administration said yesterday (29 January) it was revoking protection from deportation for more than 600,000 Venezuelans in the United States, as it highlights crime by a limited number of migrants.

"The people of this country want these dirtbags out. They want their communities to be safe," Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said as she announced the decision on Fox News.

"We are going to follow the process, evaluate all of these individuals that are in our country," she said.

Former president Joe Biden had extended temporary protected status, or TPS, for another 18 months just days before Trump returned to the White House last week pledging to carry out a mass deportation of migrants.

The United States grants TPS to foreign citizens who cannot safely return home because of war, natural disasters or other "extraordinary" conditions.

Trump in his latest campaign heavily highlighted incidents by undocumented migrants, although statistically immigrants are less likely to commit crime than native-born Americans.

He signed a law Wednesday, making it easier to detain migrants who commit crimes, named after 22-year-old Laken Riley, a nursing student murdered by an undocumented Venezuelan migrant who had been arrested twice but released before her killing.

Speaking at a signing ceremony, Trump said he believed the migration issue was more important than any other in his victory against election rival and then vice president Kamala Harris.

"That's why I'm here instead of somebody else," he said.

Criticism from Venezuela

More than seven million Venezuelans have fled their country over the last decade as the oil-rich country's economy implodes under leftist leader Nicolas Maduro, a bugbear of Washington who has faced major sanctions.

Trump has vowed to ramp up pressure on Maduro, who recently began a third presidential term after an election widely criticized by observers for irregularities.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke soon after taking office with opposition leaders including Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, whom the State Department called Venezuela's "rightful president," and urged a "restoration of democracy."

But the opposition criticised Trump's decision on temporary status for Venezuelan migrants.

The Democratic Unitary Platform opposition coalition in a statement voiced "concern for the well-being of hundreds of thousands of our honest and hard-working compatriots who have been forced to emigrate as a consequence of the complex humanitarian crisis our nation is going through."

"Unfortunately, millions of us around the world are forced to escape from the regime of Nicolas Maduro," it said.

The opposition group said it backed Trump's efforts to "forcefully confront the criminal gangs that have been operating in American territory" from Venezuela, notably Tren de Aragua, a criminal movement that Trump quickly branded as a terrorist group.

But it said that most Venezuelans who have reached US soil "contribute to the development of the United States with their honest work."

Trump's hard line on Maduro has contributed to support among many Venezuelan-Americans, especially in vote-rich Florida, despite his immigration stance.

Under Biden, the Department of Homeland Security said it was extending TPS for Venezuelans because of the "severe humanitarian emergency the country continues to face due to political and economic crises under the inhumane Maduro regime."

Biden's administration had expanded TPS to cover more than a million people from El Salvador, Sudan, Ukraine, Venezuela and other selected nations to allow them to remain legally in the United States.

Trump, who during his election campaign said that immigrants were "poisoning the blood" of the United States, quickly ordered a review of the whole TPS program on returning to office.

He sought to end the TPS program during his first term but was stymied by legal opposition.

According to the Pew Research Center, as of March 2024 there were 1.2 million people eligible for or receiving TPS in the United States, with Venezuelans making up the largest group.