Newly-confirmed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem has announced the end of a Biden administration program that allowed thousands of Venezuelan illegal aliens to be protected from deportation.
The Biden administration’s temporary protected status (TPS) program was protecting roughly 348,202 Venezuelan illegal aliens from deportation since October 2023, while also giving them work authorization.
As the DHS has reported that conditions in Venezuela have improved and confirmed that it is not in the best interest of the U.S. to maintain the program, Noem announced that these illegal aliens would no longer be getting special treatment. According to the DHS secretary, Venezuela has seen enough improvements in its economy, public health, and crime, that allow its citizens to be “safely returned to their home country.”
A notice from DHS, which was scheduled to be published on February 5, explains that “TPS has allowed a significant population of inadmissible or illegal aliens without a path to lawful immigration status to settle in the interior of the United States, and the sheer numbers have resulted in associated difficulties in local communities where local resources have been inadequate to meet the demands caused by increased numbers.”
The document went on to explain that the massive influx of Venezuelan illegal aliens into these communities has caused city shelters, police stations, and aid services to be overwhelmed at maximum capacity.
DHS further explained that the TPS program had become a magnet for illegal aliens, as they flocked to the U.S. to try to gain the benefits of the program. Thousands of inadmissible illegal aliens were paroled into the U.S. under TPS, while other illegals already in the country were able to use the program to receive protected status and work authorizations.
Temporary Protected Status is one of the biggest scams in our “legal” immigration system.
It’s not temporary, with TPS holders staying for years, and it does nothing to protect the American people from random foreigners.
Sunset all TPS statuses!
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) January 29, 2025
The memo also highlighted the fact that “President Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border. As the Attorney General and DHS have long understood, the potential ‘magnet effect’ of a TPS determination is a permissible factor under the TPS statute, especially with respect to a redesignation. The same is true for Venezuela.”
The agency also pointed to the massive increase in the number of Tren de Aragua gang members across the U.S., noting that the violent Venezuelan gang’s prevalence is another reason to end TPS.
The decision to end the program does not immediately terminate TPS for the roughly 250,000 Venezuelans granted that status in 2021, as the program will continue until September 2025.
Noem’s actions will reverse an extension of TPS implemented by disgraced former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who pushed the program to stay in place until October 2026 — claiming that it was necessary due to the “severe humanitarian emergency the country continues to face due to political and economic crises under the inhumane Maduro regime.”
.@Sec_Noem: "Before he left town, Mayorkas signed an order that said for 18 months, they were going to extend protection to people on Temporary Protected Status, which meant they were going to be able to stay here and violate our laws for another 18 months. We stopped that." pic.twitter.com/G1fyP4qA9f
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 29, 2025
