The Temporary Protection Statute (TPS for its acronym in English), is a mechanism aimed at helping people in the United States and cannot return their country safely and immediately because of a natural catastrophe or conflict armed. Based on its original conception, the government of Donald Trump decided to revoke this benefit For about 600 thousand Venezuelans to which the administration of Joe Biden had granted it before leaving power.
For Trump, the Biden government distorted the original purpose of this program that exclusively intends to provide temporary refuge against conflicts or catastrophes. Republicans understand that a political dye has been given to the application of this benefit, which may be causing people who do not comply with what is required.
In the case of Venezuelans who have recently entered the United States, the Republican Government has serious suspicions that they do not meet the conditions established in the TPS, and that the rush into their approval by Joe Biden, several elementary steps were skipped before its due approval. That is why Biden’s last plumazo has been revoked in relation to the program.
For those who apply the revocation of the TPS?
The Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noemwas in charge of announcing the decision, but specifically explained that what was revoked was the 18 -month extension of the TPS for Venezuelans, since this measure did not meet the required times.
The measure adds to Trump’s announced offensive against illegal immigration, which also extends against migrants to which the Biden government had authorized to remain in the country.
Specifically, the revocation is directed towards Venezuelan migrants who obtained their TPS in 2023, and whose extension is expanded in April this year. The outgoing administration approved these applications at the beginning of January this year, to extend the benefit for 18 more months, but in the opinion of the current government the times required for its study were not met.
In this way, Venezuelans who obtained it in 2023 will be protected until at least April 2025. However, the head of the US Security Department, Kristi Noem, has until Saturday, February 1 to decide if it grants a new extension.
Those of 2021 will not be affected, for now
The government of Joe Biden granted the TPS for a first round of Venezuelan migrants in 2021. For these people, the time to study their situation fulfilled the required times, although they are not exempt from being reviewed by the current administration.
Since the measure was revoked for those who received the benefit in 2023, who obtained it in 2021 can breathe at the moment, but their protection will be expired in September of this year.
According to the regulations of application of the TPS, if the administration does not make a decision before the deadline, the protections will be extended automatically for six months, according to the official notice.
Biden’s “trouble”
For the current administration, the government of Joe Biden distorted the original purposes of the TPS and in the case of Venezuelan migrants, hurried the extension of the benefit during the last days of his mandate as a way of binding his hands to Trump’s officials, According to the New York Times medium.
Republicans argue that Biden’s decision was exclusively political, without taking into account other variables. Alejandro Mayorkas, former secretary of National Security under the mandate of Biden, was in charge of expanding protections for Venezuelans in the last month of the previous mandate. In general, the agency must decide at regular intervals if the protections must be extended before they expire.
The current government established that Mayorkas had advanced too much and assured that the extension should not continue in force “given the very brief period” after the time it was issued on January 17.
