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'Powerless and angry': Venezuelans react to roll-back of deportation protections

Verónica Egui Brito and Syra Ortiz Blanes, Miami Herald on

Published in News & Features

The Trump administration’s decision to rescind a Biden-era extension of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans has ignited fear in Florida, the heart of the Venezuelan community in the United States.

“I feel powerless and angry that I can’t help my family. This is a country of immigrants. Why are they attacking us? My family has committed no crime,” said B. Diaz, a Venezuelan who requested to remain anonymous out of concern for her family’s safety. “They’re tearing us apart.”

Diaz’s family members, who arrived in South Florida with an immigration parole and received TPS status in 2023, are among the more than half a million Venezuelans in the U.S. who are approved beneficiaries of the program. The federal program confers temporary deportation protections and work permits for people already in the U.S. who hail from certain countries in turmoil. Before the end of President Biden’s administration, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had announced that Venezuelans would have a new TPS extension, to October 2026.

But this week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she would roll back the extension. In the coming months, she will have to decide whether to extend or terminate the two Temporary Protected Status designations for Venezuela.

The decision has caused extreme anxiety and uncertainty among families like Diaz’s, who are now wondering whether they will soon be facing deportation back to a country suffering through violent political repression and a humanitarian crisis. Close to 60% of TPS recipients in Florida, home to the largest population of program beneficiaries from all nationalities of any state, are Venezuelan. That means Wednesday’s roll back could have serious consequences here if Noem decides to not extend or to terminate Venezuela’s TPS designation.

As soon as Diaz became a U.S. citizen five years ago, Diaz began exploring every possible avenue to bring her family — two daughters and five grandchildren — together. As her relatives began arriving in the U.S., TPS gave them the reassurance that they could stay safely in the country. Now, that sense of security is fading, and with it, any hope of stability for her family.

“What are our options? We’re desperate, especially with the threat of TPS ending,” said Diaz.

Her daughters and grandchildren’s journey to the U.S. began in October 2022 when they settled in Miami. They have since moved to Orlando. The transition was far from easy, especially for the children. They struggled with the language, making school difficult at first. But, as time went on, the family adapted to their new life.

“The youngest, who is six and hated going to school in Venezuela, completely transformed when he got to the U.S.,” Diaz said, speaking about her grandchildren. “He started waking up early, eager to go to school. It was like night and day. And now, will he have to go back to the place he was so terrified of?”

Limbo for TPS holders

Gabriel Antar, a 30-year-old office manager from Weston, came to the United States from Venezuela in 2008. He told the Herald he is “very concerned” about Wednesday’s development because TPS offers the only pathway for him to remain legally in the United States. He has a master’s degree in international business and accounting and is currently in the process of obtaining his real estate license.

Though Antar has always maintained legal status since arriving here nearly two decades ago, he said that if the current TPS designations are terminated, he has no other option than to return to Venezuela. He last visited the South American country in 2010.

“I have made a whole life here, pursued my career in this country. This decision puts me in limbo, even though I know more about the history of this country than my own,” said Gabriel, who has lived in the U.S. since he was 13. “I always had the hope that there would exist some path towards citizenship in this country.

Antar said he would never stay as an undocumented immigrant in the United States. Currently, there is no direct avenue to citizenship from Temporary Protected Status.

‘Deeply painful’

Adelys Ferro, executive director of the Venezuelan American Caucus, an organization dedicated to informed Venezuelan-American citizens, said Trump’s decision does not surprise her. However, she said it is “deeply painful” and said targeting Venezuelans was part of Trump’s agenda.

 

“He called us animals, criminals. This was one of the main threats if Trump had won the election. He won and is fulfilling his campaign promise,” she said.

For Ferro, it’s an unfathomable contradiction, especially since the new U.S. secretary of state, former U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, is a South Floridian with experience dealing with the Maduro regime in Venezuela.

More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left their country to escape poverty and violence. Many have ended up seeking refuge in Latin America and the United States. The latest report from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reveals that 17.6% of Venezuela’s population suffers from hunger, a rate among the highest in the region.

“The Trump administration, which has repeatedly condemned Venezuela’s dictatorship, is now planning to send hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans back into the very crisis they’ve called unsustainable,” Ferro said. “What makes this even more agonizing is that Marco Rubio, of all people, knows our pain firsthand. He knows exactly what we’re fleeing — the brutal dictatorship of Maduro.”

Ferro said the organization will support any legal action to challenge the TPS decision in court.

“It’s devastating. The Venezuelan community is living in fear, too scared to leave their homes, afraid to send their children to school, and many are struggling with depression,” she said. “We will do everything in our power to help them.”

‘Not all Venezuelans are criminals’

Among others affected by the recent roll back are a married couple in their sixties and their daughter, who have been living in San Francisco since 2022. They arrived in the U.S. under the humanitarian parole process for Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haiti after their son sponsored them. They later applied for TPS under the most recent Venezuela designation.

“We feel a lot of fear, sadness, and uncertainty,” said Alejandro and Ines, who requested their last name not be used out of concern for retaliation. “We don’t know what’s going to happen. We had hoped to keep the family united, but now it feels like they’re closing the doors on us.”

Both Alejandro, 61, and Ines, 65, are highly educated professionals. Alejandro holds a degree in Administration and a Master’s in management. Ines is a librarian with a Master’s in Economics and Hydrocarbon Management.

“The TPS is a protection for people like us, who right now in Venezuela have no guaranteed human rights,” said Alejandro, who has been working as an Uber driver since receiving his work permit. Ines is studying English to expand her job prospects.

During his first days in office, Trump canceled the parole program for Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, and Haitians, which had allowed over half-a-million people from the four countries to live and work in the United States. Ines and Alejandro could not renew their parole status, anyway, after Biden announced last year that current beneficiaries would not be able to extend the status beyond two years. But they were counting on the possibility of TPS to keep their deportation protections and work permits.

Now, they’re unsure if they will even receive it for the remaining period.

Said Alejandro: “Not all Venezuelans are criminals.”


©2025 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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