Organizations Are Gearing Up To Challenge Trump's Ending of TPS For Venezuelans

Advocacy organizations anticipated they are preparing a legal challenge to the Donald Trump administration's decision to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the country.

YWCA USA, the Venezuelan-American caucus and leaders of the Venezuelan diaspora in the country gathered in Washington to explain the measures they will seek to implement. "We are already in talks with Legal Aid and other law firms to file a suit," said Ana Chalita, a member of Ven Conmigo, an organization advocating for the rights of Venezuelans in the U.S.

"The current administration made a disproportionate decision by saying the situation in Venezuela has changed and that there have been improvements, because that is the reason to grant TPS and Venezuelans can't go back to their country," added Mayra Sulbarán, from Casa DC Venezuela, according to Efecto Cocuyo.

Noem issued a notice last week to end the program. The notice was officially published in the Federal Register Wednesday and will 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 it is 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.

The groups are also planning on sending a letter to lawmakers across the country urging them to make the Trump administration go back on the decision. Some Republicans, especially from Florida, have already been making such pleas with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Among them is U.S. Rep Mario Diaz-Balart. "I respectfully request, within all applicable rules and regulations, that you assess all options available to ensure that Venezuelan nationals without criminal records are not forcibly returned to one of the most repressive dictatorships in the world," the Miami Republican wrote.

Diaz-Balart isn't the first Florida Republican to break from the Trump administration on this decision. In fact, he has partnered with Republican colleagues Rep. Carlos Gimenez and Maria Elvira Salazar to advocate for the program or for a review of the beneficiaries on a case-by-case basis.

"Unfortunately, that reality remains unchanged," Diaz-Balart wrote to Noem. "The humanitarian crises in Venezuela have only worsened in the intervening period, and political persecution has escalated."

The Miami-Dade commission also issued a resolution to that end. 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."

However, not all Republicans in the state have the same assessment of Trump's decision. Florida Sen. Rick Scott defended it last week, 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."