Letter to the Hon. Donald J. Trump - Harris, Democrats Call on Trump to Help Venezuelans by Granting them Temporary Protected Status

Letter

Dear Mr. President:

We write to express our deep concern about the number of individuals who have fled Venezuela's political, economic, and humanitarian crisis and again urge your Administration to provide Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for eligible Venezuelans.

As you know, Venezuela has now become the number one country of origin for individuals claiming asylum in the U.S. and nearly 30,000 Venezuelans applied for asylum with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2018 alone. This constitutes nearly one-third of claims filed with the agency in 2018 and the most of any country, according to statistics in recent years.

In addition, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recently announced that the number of refugees and migrants from Venezuela has skyrocketed to over four million since 2015. Globally, UNHCR reports that Venezuelans made more asylum requests than any other nationality and now represent more than one in five asylum claims made anywhere in the world. Venezuelans are fleeing Nicolás Maduro's criminal regime, attempting to escape a country ravaged by violence, destitution, and the widespread absence of basic food and medicine.

Venezuelans are fleeing their country at a staggering pace and it appears that the current crisis will only accelerate. The Organization of American States estimates that by 2020 the number of Venezuelans fleeing could reach 7.5 million. While the majority of these individuals have sought refuge in the region--with Colombia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, and Brazil hosting approximately three million Venezuelans--it is likely that this number will increase in the United States as well.

Given the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Venezuela, we again urge your Administration to grant TPS to eligible Venezuelans currently present in the United States. Without TPS, Venezuelans in the United States are at risk of deportation back to a country that is suffering a widespread humanitarian tragedy, and data from your Administration shows there was a 35 percent increase in deportations of Venezuelan citizens in FY2018.

As 24 Senators emphasized in a March 7th letter that you have yet to respond to, an individual is ineligible for TPS if he or she has a criminal background or poses a threat to national security. The decision to deny, withdraw or terminate TPS is in the sole discretion of the U.S. Government. Moreover, TPS does not make a beneficiary eligible for legal permanent resident status or U.S. citizenship. When the TPS designation of a country is terminated, beneficiaries revert to the same immigration status they maintained before the designation.

Designating Venezuela for TPS would alleviate the suffering of innocent Venezuelan civilians and demonstrate our nation's commitment to supporting a safe democratic transition in Venezuela so that individuals can return home soon. It would also reaffirm the United States' historical role as a beacon of light to those fleeing oppression.

Thank you in advance for your attention to this issue. We look forward to your response

Sincerely,