Many Venezuelans no longer have to live in fear of deportation

Miami, Florida. Sigmund Garcia, who was born in Venezuela and moved to South Florida about a year ago, said in Spanish that he lives in fear of deportation. You won’t have to do this anymore, for now.

Garcia is one of 472,000 Venezuelans who arrived in the country on July 31 and are eligible for temporary protected status from the Department of Homeland Security.

This extension of TPS adds to the approximately 242,700 Venezuelans already subject to TPS.

“We can at least get a work permit so people can work,” Garcia said in Spanish.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas agreed to the extension due to Venezuela’s “increasing instability and insecurity,” the department said in a statement.

Rachel Lyon, an immigration attorney, said several of her clients contacted her for information and she was able to give them the good news.

“This means that these people will not be deported,” Leon said, adding: “Many of them are professionals who can get a better quality job with a work permit.”

Willie Allen, an immigration lawyer, realizes that Venezuela is a country in chaos and people are fleeing. The United Nations estimates the number of Venezuelans in the diaspora at about 7.3 million.

It also relieves an already crowded immigration court system, Allen said.

“The immigration court’s priority now must be the deportation of criminal aliens,” Allen said.

The Biden administration is also processing a growing number of Venezuelan asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border and is using CBP One, a mobile app, to make appointments at border crossings also for migrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua who have a financial sponsor.

The Biden administration also allocated forces from the US Department of Defense to support homeland security. The National Guard was already assisting Customs and Border Protection.