Trump administration ends Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan migrants

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday moved to end a Biden-era designation of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan migrants in the U.S.

The department said Venezuela no longer met the TPS requirements. 

Temporary Protected Status is available to people whose home country has experienced a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event. It provides eligible migrants with work authorization and temporary protection from deportation.

“Weighing public safety, national security, migration factors, immigration policy, economic considerations, and foreign policy, it’s clear that allowing Venezuelan nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is not in America’s best interest,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.

The designation is set to expire on September 10. According to data published by the Congressional Research Service in December, more than 256,000 Venezuelans received TPS under the 2021 designation.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration first took steps toward removing the protection for Venezuelans against deportation in February, less than a month after Trump returned to the White House.

Although a federal court blocked the move in March, the U.S. Supreme Court later granted the federal government permission to proceed with deportations.

Last month, an appeals court ruled that the Trump administration had likely acted unlawfully when it rolled back temporary protections from deportation granted to 600,000 Venezuelans living in the U.S. when former Democratic President Joe Biden was in office.

(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)