The Trump administration on Wednesday moved to terminate the legal status and work permits of nearly 270,000 Venezuelan migrants enrolled in the Temporary Protected Status program, urging them to self-deport from the U.S.
The announcement marked the latest effort by the Trump administration to revoke humanitarian protections granted to hundreds of thousands of migrants from countries plagued by political turmoil, war and other crises, making them eligible for potential deportation.
Unless blocked in court, the move by the Department of Homeland Security will terminate the legal protections of Venezuelans enrolled in a TPS program created in 2021 by the Biden administration. Homeland Security officials said roughly 268,000 Venezuelans are covered under the 2021 program, and their status would lapse in the next 60 days.
Earlier in the year, the Trump administration, following a decision by the Supreme Court, terminated another TPS designation issued in 2023 that covered roughly 350,000 Venezuelans, most of whom crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally or entered the country legally under now-defunct Biden-era programs.
The 2021 program covers a separate group of Venezuelan migrants who have been in the U.S. for longer.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Matthew Tragesser said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem determined that keeping the 2021 program would not be in the best interest of the country, arguing that TPS incentivizes illegal immigration.
“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,” Tragesser added.
Those who lose their TPS protections and don’t have any other legal means to remain in the U.S. — such as applications for asylum or permanent American residency — could face arrest and deportation by federal immigration officials.
Homeland Security officials on Wednesday said TPS recipients whose status expires should sign up for self-deportation using a government smartphone app, called CBP Home, that the Trump administration has repurposed to facilitate voluntary returns. Officials have offered self-deportees a $1,000 bonus if they return to their home countries.
Created in 1990 by Congress as a way to provide a temporary safe haven to migrants from countries beset by armed conflict, environmental disasters or other emergencies, TPS has been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration. It has argued the policy has been abused by Democratic administrations and unnecessarily extended for far too long, despite its temporary nature.
Over the past months, the Trump administration has also announced the termination of TPS programs for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua.
In lawsuits challenging the administration’s actions, advocates have argued the native countries of many TPS recipients remain unstable and dangerous, and that the terminations are rooted in racial animus.
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