Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez wave a Venezuelan flag during a protest against the result of the presidential election on July 30, 2024, in Caracas, Venezuela. President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner. The result has been questioned by the opposition and internationally. (Photo by Alfredo Lasry R/Getty Images)
Gov. Ron DeSantis has praised the Trump administration’s decision to remove temporary protections from Venezuelan immigrants and said Florida would follow the federal government’s guidance in handling the fallout.
The governor’s comments came Thursday, two days after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security revoked an extension of temporary protective status for nearly 600,000 Venezuelans.
Florida has the largest population of immigrants with TPS, which shields them from deportation and allows them to work, and nearly 60% are from Venezuela, according to a December report from the Congressional Research Service.
The Venezuelan government’s instability led the Biden administration to grant TPS to Venezuelans in 2021 and expand it in 2023 under the Congress-approved program.
“I want us to be assisting the feds in how they want to work that out,” DeSantis said during a press conference Thursday morning in Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Training Facility. “The grant of TPS was not lawful, let’s just be honest, when Biden did that. So, I think what the Trump administration is doing is just consistent with what the law is, and I think they’re making the right decision.”
Those who gained the temporary protections in 2023 will keep them until April 2, and those under TPS since 2021 will lose the status on Sept. 10, according to reporting from States Newsroom D.C. Bureau. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has until Saturday to decide to extend protections for the 2023 TPS holders and until July 12 for people granted the status in 2021.
Three South Florida Republicans in Congress released a statement Wednesday in support of Venezuelans, saying the country wasn’t safe for people who had settled in the U.S. to go back to.
“The Venezuelan people have endured repression, corruption, and human rights abuses for far too long in Venezuela, and it is still not safe for many to return,” U.S. Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos A. Giménez, and María Elvira Salazar, wrote. “We will continue to do everything possible to ensure that those seeking freedom from persecution and oppression are protected.”
Ade Ferrero, executive director of the Florida-based Venezuelan-American Caucus, in a joint statement with the Florida Immigrant Coalition on Wednesday, urged Venezuelans to seek legal advice.
“Nicolas Maduro’s regime has been widely condemned for jailing, torturing, and even killing political dissidents,” Ferrero wrote. “For many Venezuelans, like me, returning home is not an option — it is a death sentence.”