Biden grants temporary protected status to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in US

The Biden administration said Monday it will offer temporary legal status to Venezuelans who illegally entered the U.S. after fleeing the nation’s economic crisis.

"The living conditions in Venezuela reveal a country in turmoil, unable to protect its own citizens," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.  "It is in times of extraordinary and temporary circumstances like these that the United States steps forward to support eligible Venezuelan nationals already present here, while their home country seeks to right itself out of the current crises." Former President Donald Trump imposed severe sanctions on Nicolas Maduro’s regime but resisted bipartisan calls to grant a TPS designation for Venezuelans during his term in office. In January, Trump enacted the Deferred Enforced Departure program to protect some Venezuelan nationals from deportation for an 18-month period. Under the Biden administration’s policy, an estimated 320,000 people could apply to legally live in the United States over the 18-month span, the Associated Press reported, citing a senior official. In 2019, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that a TPS order would apply to roughly 200,000 Venezuelans.