(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The Trump administration has rescinded one of the worst immigration policies enacted under Joe Biden: Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan nationals.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem vacated Biden’s 18-month extension of TPS for Venezuelans residing in the U.S., according to Sunday reporting by the liberal New York Times. Noem’s predecessor, Alejandro Mayorkas, granted the extension on Jan. 10—just 11 days before leaving office.
The Biden-era extension would have forced the Trump administration to continue granting special protection to more than 300,000 Venezuelan nationals without the ability to reassess the program or even tighten the vetting process.
Under the new directive, The Times reported that Venezuelans who received TPS in 2023 will lose the special protections 60 days after the federal government issues its termination notice.
Noem addressed the reversal during an interview with NBC News host Kristen Welker on Meet the Press on Sunday: “The [TPS] program has been abused and it doesn’t have integrity right now.”
Biden first granted TPS for Venezuelans in 2021, a puzzling move critics say incentivized illegal immigration under the pretense they would be covered. Since then, Biden blindly renewed and expanded the program.
TPS has long been criticized by the Center for Immigration Studies as a scheme to grant de facto permanent status to its beneficiaries.
Some countries—such as El Salvador and Honduras—have been on the program since 2001 and 1999, respectively.
Approximately 250,000 Salvadorans remain on TPS due to an earthquake that happened over two decades ago.
Trump’s first attempt to get rid of the program was halted by activist judges and by the results of the 2020 presidential election. Biden quickly reinstated the program once he took office.
The Biden regime argued that El Salvador remains unsafe for TPS recipients, but these claims are contradicted by their actions as they deported 7,000 individuals to El Salvador in 2022, according to CIS.
Supporters of TPS also point to the dire situation in Venezuela under the socialist dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro. However, CIS found that most Venezuelan nationals receiving TPS had already found safety in countries like Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Argentina before coming to the U.S.
DHS’s reversal comes amid a surge in high-profile crimes involving Venezuelan nationals who entered the country under the Biden administration.
Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student in Georgia, was brutally killed by José Antonio Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan national and member of the Tren de Aragua gang. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
🚨Laken Riley’s murderer has been convicted on 10 criminal charges
This illegal alien will now face the wrath of American justice
pic.twitter.com/5pr0CAGzQz— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) November 20, 2024
In Texas, 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was gang-raped, tied up and murdered by Franklin Pena and Johan Martínez-Rangel, two Venezuelan nationals, according to investigators. They are currently facing the death penalty for these offenses.
NEW: Prosecutors say 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray fought to survive until her last breath, say she left bite and scratch marks on one of the illegal immigrants.
21-year-old Johan Jose Rangel Martinez still had bite marks on his body when he was arrested.
Rangel Martinez is… pic.twitter.com/lRUHfMfUiz
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) June 25, 2024
