The Miami-Dade County Commission urged the Trump administration on Tuesday to restore Temporary Protected Status protections to immigrants, saying the measure will create "unnecessary instability for families and businesses."
The bipartisan resolution was introduced by Rene Garcia, a former Miami-Dade GOP chair, and calls for maintaining all TPS designations currently in place, the Miami Herald reported. County Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez, a Cuban-born Republican, said he is supporting the resolution because "we are a community of immigrants."
Even though the vote was bipartisan, there was some friction regarding its language: it urges Trump to maintain TPS for "law-abiding" migrants, suggesting those facing or convicted of crimes should be deported. Commissioner Marlene Bastien, a Haitian-born Democrat, told the board to resist the language, saying it is unfair to deport someone for "minor infractions."
"When the present administration tells you that they are arresting criminals, you have to pause and understand: Who are they arresting?" Bastien said. "Because someone whose wife is about to have a baby and who has to drive her to the hospital because we refuse to give them a driver's license... they can be arrested."
Not all Republicans in the state have the same assessment of Trump's decision. Florida Sen. Rick Scott defended it on Tuesday, saying it's a result of former President Biden's "abuse" of the program.
In a statement focused on the Venezuelan community and sent to The Latin Times, Scott said that "President Trump took action to protect vulnerable Venezuelans during his first term— but then former president Joe Biden abused the TPS program, opened our border and took action that dismantled our immigration system and our ability to fully vet true protection seekers."
To illustrate his statement, Scott drew attention to cases that have gathered national attention like that of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia who was murdered last year by an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant. Her case led to the introduction and recent passing of the Laken Riley Act, a bill with bipartisan support that authorizes the detention of unauthorized immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes.
"The weak open border policies of Biden and Democrats allowed the illegitimate dictators like Maduro, Diaz-Canel and Ortega to take full advantage and weaponize migration by opening their jails and sending dangerous criminals, like Tren de Aragua, to terrorize our country," Scott said. "Innocent Americans like Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray have paid the price."
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem issued a notice Monday to end the program for certain Venezuelans. The notice will be officially published in the Federal Register Wednesday and take effect 60 days after that.
The notice stated that the administration has concluded that Venezuela "no longer continues to meet the conditions" for its 2023 TPS designation, which was meant to be valid until April. "The Secretary has determined in its contrary to the national interest to permit the covered Venezuelan nationals to remain in the United States," the memo read. Some 350,000 Venezuelans are covered by the 2023 designation, the overall figure for all nationals being over 600,000.
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