LatinNews Daily - 02 October 2023

Venezuela: On 20 September US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced the extension and redesignation of Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months. TPS provides individuals already present in the US with protection from removal if they are from countries experiencing “ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or extraordinary and temporary conditions” that “prevent its nationals from returning safely”. In a statement, Mayorkas said that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was extending the designation due to Venezuela’s “increased instability and lack of safety due to the enduring humanitarian, security, political, and environmental conditions” in the country. The DHS estimates that an additional 472,000 Venezuelan nationals may be eligible under the redesignation. According to a DHS press release, Venezuelans who reached the US after 31 July are not eligible for TPS and will be removed if they do not have a legal basis to stay. There are an estimated 242,700 TPS beneficiaries under Venezuela’s current TPS designation. The number of Venezuelan migrants in the US has surged in recent years, driven by the political, economic, and security crisis in the country. In October 2022, the US administration of President Joe Biden introduced a new policy that allowed some Venezuelans to apply for entry to the US from abroad while expelling those intercepted at the US-Mexico border without authorisation. This led to a decrease in the number of encounters with Venezuelan migrants at the border.

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