“TPS is based on the statute and is a legal immigration status, unlike the Deferred Forced Departure. That’s why we’re relaunching our campaign to really support those fleeing the misery caused by the Maduro regime, ”he said of the account, shared first with POLITICO.
Democrats were quick to point out that Trump’s last-minute action to offer DED does not replace the need to grant TPS to Venezuelans. While both the deferred boarding program and the TPS allow recipients to live and work in the United States legally, immigration experts say that a protected status designation is written in the statute and has a certain legal structure behind it. DED is not an immigration status and is granted at the discretion of the president.
Menendez, Florida’s Democrats and Republicans for years pressed for the TPS to be granted to Venezuelans, but efforts to convince Trump or pass it into legislation have failed. In 2019, the Democratic-led House passed a bipartisan bill to grant TPS to Venezuelans. But the legislation was retained in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Now Menéndez is feeling confident that Congress can do this with the Democrats in the majority and the Biden administration supporting the effort. President Joe Biden, while campaigning, said repeatedly that he would extend TPS to Venezuelans.
Extending status to Venezuelans would protect some 200,000 Venezuelan citizens in the United States from deportation, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.
TPS is used to protect immigrants who come from countries devastated by natural disasters or armed conflicts. It is the same temporary legal status that the Trump administration announced that it would phase out in 2018 for more than 300,000 immigrants from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, Honduras, Sudan and Nepal in the coming years. Under Biden’s immigration plan, TPS recipients would be eligible for automatic green cards.
The project – being co-sponsored by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) And Cory Booker (DN.J.) – marks another effort by leading Democrats to make immigration a central issue now that Biden is in office. Menendez is also spearheading the Senate effort to approve Biden’s broad immigration reform bill, which would offer a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and tackle the roots of Central American migration.
Menendez said last week that his office planned to present the comprehensive project in the next three weeks with the aim of approving it this year to prevent it from falling into the challenges of the 2022 election year.
But despite their majority, Democrats will face an uphill battle to get approval for a major immigration package. Menendez has already acknowledged that any large-scale bill will require negotiations with Republicans to get at least 10 members of the Republican Party to pass it in the Senate.
In the meantime, some Democrats and immigrant advocates are pushing for smaller bills that move quickly and offer legal status to undocumented immigrants in the country. An impulse is for undocumented essential workers to have legal status through reconciliation.