Dems Push White House to Expand Immigration Protections for Venezuelans; Biden Likely to Extend, Expand Amnesty for Half a Million Venezuelans (UPDATE)

Dems push White House to expand immigration protections for Venezuelans

The Biden administration is facing increased pressure from Democrats on Capitol Hill to expand and extend temporary protections for Venezuelan exiles in the United States.

Officials face a deadline on Monday to make a decision on whether to offer Temporary Protection Status to an estimated 250,000 Venezuelans currently ineligible because they arrived in the U.S. after the March 2021 eligibility date. Officials in the White House have expressed concern that a TPS redesignation would incentivize more migration to the U.S. southern border and prompt fresh criticism from Republicans on the president’s handling of immigration policy.

But a group of 22 Democratic senators, led by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), on Friday dismissed those concerns head-on in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “Denying access to TPS to more recent arrivals will not serve as an effective deterrent to future border crossings given the desperation of Venezuelans to flee unsustainable conditions,” the senators said in the letter first shared with POLITICO. “It will simply ensure that Venezuelans will live in poverty and at risk of deportation in the United States, with no other options.”

The lawmakers want the administration to redesignate TPS to apply to more recently-arrived Venezuelans. They also want an extension of TPS as the current protections are set to expire in September. —>READ MORE HERE

Biden Likely to Extend, Expand Amnesty for Half a Million Venezuelans:

President Joe Biden’s deputies may soon declare a quasi-amnesty for the roughly 250,000 wage-cutting Venezualan economic migrants they have welcomed over the border since March 2021, according to a report in Politico.

The quasi-amnesty is called Temporary Protective Status (TPS). It now grants temporary residency and work permits — and even a backdoor route to citizenship. Roughly 700,000 migrants from favored countries — including about 300,000 Venezuelans who arrived before March 2021 — now have TPS status.

The expanded TPS giveaway is being considered for about 250,000 Venezuelan migrants who arrived after March 2021, even as millions of American men have been pushed out of the workforce since 2000.

The TPS giveaway is just one of many border gateways that Biden’s deputies have opened since January 2021 to at least 1.5 million migrants, including migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Afghanistan, Ukraine, South America, and Africa.

The TPS status is rarely canceled. Pro-migration judges blocked TPS cancellations ordered by President Donald Trump. —>READ MORE HERE

UPEATE: DHS Announces Extension of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuela

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