{"id":75844,"date":"2025-10-01T14:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T21:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=75844"},"modified":"2025-10-01T14:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T21:43:07","slug":"our-lives-are-not-temporary-venezuelans-wary-as-clock-ticks-on-tps-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=75844","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Our Lives Are Not Temporary\u2019 \u2013 Venezuelans Wary as Clock Ticks on TPS Protections"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Roxsy Lin<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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More than 600,000 Venezuelans in the US are here under Temporary Protected Status. Those protections are now under threat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Image via Canva<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n

When Yoselyn Barboza returned home to Venezuela in 2016 after an international trip, she found her young son gravely ill. Doctors quickly diagnosed him with amoebiasis, a common infection easily cured with antibiotics\u2014at least in most places.<\/p>\n

But medicine was in short supply then in Venezuela, so the pediatrician urged Barboza to look outside the country, in neighboring Colombia.<\/p>\n

While relatives managed to secure the needed medicine in time to treat the boy, the experience left Barboza shaken. \u201cDeep down, I had this fear that my son could have died,\u201d she recalled, \u201cand that I wouldn\u2019t have been able to do anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Barboza decided to leave Venezuela for the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u2018We have never had permanent status\u2019<\/h2>\n

Since 2014, more than 7.7 million Venezuelans\u2014about 20% of the nation\u2019s population\u2014have fled the country, which has been devastated by chronic food and medicine shortages, collapsing public services, and political persecution.<\/p>\n

Roughly 770,000 Venezuelans now live in the U.S., where over 600,000 have secured Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a federal program that shields individuals present in the U.S. from deportation when conditions in their home country are deemed too dangerous to return.<\/p>\n

The Secretary of Homeland Security determines which countries qualify for TPS, granting protections that last 6, 12, or 18 months. Beneficiaries must re-register to maintain their protection, which includes work permits and travel authorization. TPS does not provide a path to permanent residency or citizenship.<\/p>\n

In January, the Trump Administration announced that it was terminating TPS designations for Venezuelans, reversing Biden-era extensions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been living in the United States for 27 years and have had TPS since 2001, when TPS was granted to Salvadorans,\u201d said Jose Palma, co-coordinator of the National TPS Alliance, an advocacy group formed and led by TPS beneficiaries nationwide. The group is the lead plaintiff in a case challenging the termination of TPS status for Venezuelans and Haitians.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Spanish, he added, \u201cWe have never had permanent status. We have always been living life from one year and a half to another year and a half. We need a permanent solution because our lives are not temporary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once a TPS designation ends, recipients return to the immigration status they held before TPS\u2014meaning those who were undocumented, for example, become eligible for removal again.<\/p>\n

Earlier this summer, the Department of Homeland Security announced it was ending TPS protections for citizens of Nepal, giving them just 60 days to leave the country. Many had resided in the U.S. for more than a decade. The case is currently being litigated, but it demonstrates the precarious situation many TPS recipients here face.<\/p>\n

\u2018What if they take me\u2019<\/h2>\n

On September 5th, shortly before Venezuelan\u2019s TPS protections were set to end, federal judge Edward Chen of the Northern District of California ruled against the Trump Administration, restoring the TPS designation, at least temporarily. One week later, however, on September 11, Chen\u2019s ruling had yet to be updated on the USCIS website.<\/p>\n

According to the National TPS Alliance,\u00a0individuals were being laid off from their jobs because of the outdated information.\u00a0<\/a>Others said they were blocked from re-registering because Venezuela had not been put back on the list of eligible countries.<\/p>\n

The Trump Administration, meanwhile, appealed Chen\u2019s ruling to the Supreme Court. A final decision on the case is still pending.<\/p>\n

The back and forth has left many TPS beneficiaries reeling.<\/p>\n

Adriana, who asked that we not use her real name\u00a0to protect her identity,\u00a0<\/ins>described a constant sense of fear. \u201cWhat if they stop me, what if they take me, what if they ask for my papers?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Amid the uncertainty, Adriana says she and her husband, both of whom were granted TPS status, have been preparing for the worst, including selling\u00a0<\/ins>their business\u2014a Venezuelan food truck\u2014in case they are forced to leave the country on short notice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad because you think about all the sacrifices you made to have it and all the work you put in to grow the business,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0American Immigration Council<\/a>, TPS holders contributed more than $2.2 billion in taxes to the U.S. economy in 2021, including almost $1 billion to state and local governments.<\/p>\n

Trump targets Venezuelans<\/h2>\n

President Trump has repeatedly singled out Venezuelans, promoting the narrative that Venezuelan TPS beneficiaries here are linked to the transnational criminal group Tren de Aragua and that their removal from the country is a matter of national security, rhetoric Judge Chen resoundingly refuted in his decision,\u00a0according to court documents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no evidence that Venezuelan TPS holders are members of the TdA gang,\u201d said Chen. \u201cVenezuelan TPS holders have lower rates of criminality than the general population,\u201d he went on, adding that the wholesale tarnishing of Venezuelan TPS holders as criminals \u201csmacks of racism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s rhetoric also dovetails with the deployment of U.S. military vessels to the Caribbean and the extrajudicial bombings of several Venezuelan boats that officials here contend, without evidence, were being used to smuggle drugs.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of Venezuelans, meanwhile, have been arrested by immigration authorities across the country\u00a0and remain in custody,\u00a0according to the Miami Herald<\/a><\/ins>, since Judge Chen\u2019s injunction.<\/ins><\/p>\n

\u201cThey are doing everything in their power to make as many Venezuelans as possible illegal, to send them back to a country they themselves say is run by a drug cartel,\u201d said Adelys Ferro, co-founder and executive director of the\u00a0Venezuelan American Caucus<\/a>, which has partnered with the National TPS Alliance in its suit against the administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the legal arguments are sound; the question is whether the Supreme Court is going to make a decision based on the law or on its own political orientation,\u201d noted Palma with the National TPS Alliance.<\/p>\n

Even if the court denies the government\u2019s request to revoke protections for Venezuelans, Ferro says \u201call we gain is time until October 2026,\u201d when the current protections expire.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, she remains skeptical that the program will be renewed under this administration and is urging Venezuelans to consult with immigration lawyers to explore other legal pathways for remaining in the country.<\/p>\n

Roxsy Lin is a member of the\u00a0California Local News Fellowship.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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