CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – With the clock running out of office, U.S. President Donald Trump protected tens of thousands of Venezuelan migrants from deportation on Tuesday night, rewarding Venezuelan exiles who are among his most loyal supporters and who fear losing the same privileged access to the White House during the Biden government.
Trump signed an executive order postponing for 18 months the removal of more than 145,000 Venezuelans who were at risk of being sent back to their crisis-torn homeland. He cited as a basis for his decision the “deteriorated condition” in Venezuela, which constitutes a threat to national security.
“The United States remains a beacon of hope and freedom for many, and now qualified Venezuelan citizens in the United States will receive the much-needed temporary immigration relief,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, in a statement praising the decision. .
The last-minute extension – in stark contrast to Trump’s hard-line immigration policies for the past four years – ended a busy last day in office that also saw Trump issue a new round of financial sanctions against the alleged leader of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Mature and tightening controls to keep spy technology out of the hands of the Venezuelan military.
But before Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday, much more attention was paid to the choice of President-elect to be Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who during his confirmation hearing of the US Senate in Washington showed continued support for the opposition leader Venezuelan Juan Guaidó.
Blinken, in his first comments on Venezuela, said he would continue to recognize Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president and indicated that he has no illusions of an eventual dialogue with Maduro, whom he called a “brutal dictator”.
Still, the veteran diplomat expressed frustration at the results of the current US approach, which has not undermined Maduro’s grip on power or led to free and fair elections. He said there is room for fine-tuning sanctions and better coordination with allied nations to restore democracy in the crisis-hit South American country.
“The difficult part is that, despite all these efforts, which I support, we obviously haven’t gotten the results we need,” said Blinken.
The Trump administration was the first of more than 50 countries in the world to recognize Guaidó as president of Venezuela shortly after the young legislator stood up to challenge Maduro’s government two years ago. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo spoke on Monday by phone to Guaidó, expressing his “personal respect and appreciation” for the opposition leader for his “commitment to the cause of freedom,” the State Department said in a statement.
Venezuela, once a rich oil-producing nation, has fallen into an economic and political crisis in recent years, which has seen a flood of more than 5 million residents flee, a collapse in public services and shortages, including a lack of running water, electricity and gasoline.
Most migrated to other parts of Latin America. But an estimated 350,000 reside in the United States, and about 146,000 of them have no legal status, according to the Center for Migration Studies in New York.
More than 700 Venezuelans have been removed from the United States since 2018, while another 11,000 are in the process of being deported, according to the Syracuse University TRAC immigration database.
For years, Venezuelans, with bipartisan support, have been clamoring for so-called temporary protection status with no effect, as Trump tried to end the program for migrants from six other countries, including Haiti, Nicaragua and El Salvador.
Trump’s order provides similar protections, including protection against deportation and the right to work, but has still met resistance by some Democrats who want Biden to introduce legislation that provides additional safeguards.
“Our community will no longer be deceived and used for political games,” said Leopoldo Martinez, the first member of the Democratic National Committee born in Venezuela.
In the latest round of sanctions to try to pressure Maduro to leave, the United States Treasury Department imposed sanctions on three individuals, 14 companies and six ships. All are accused of helping Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA to escape previous United States sanctions aimed at preventing the president from profiting from oil sales.
The sanctions target people and companies linked to Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman who, according to American officials, is Maduro’s front man, responsible for everything from food imports to the country’s oil exports. Saab was arrested under a U.S. warrant last year in the African country of Cape Verde, in what Maduro says is an official mission to Iran to buy supplies. He is now fighting extradition to Miami, where he faces charges of corruption.
Maduro’s government criticized the sanctions as yet another act of “imperialist aggression” aimed at destroying Venezuela’s ability to meet its own needs by selling oil after four years of attacks by the Trump administration.
The U.S. Department of Commerce also announced measures on Tuesday to prevent US technology from being used by military intelligence in countries like China, Cuba, Russia and Venezuela.
These strict measures have become an almost routine feature of the outgoing government’s hard-line approach to Venezuela, which has proved popular with Latino voters exiled to Florida.
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Associated Press writer Scott Smith reported this story in Caracas and AP writer Joshua Goodman reported from Miami. AP writers Adriana Gomez Licon and Gisela Salomon in Miami contributed to this report.