WASHINGTON – As one of his final acts in office, President Trump has authorized a program to give work permits and deportation protection to Venezuelan immigrants to the U.S. without legal permission, an action that President-elect Joe Biden promised to take during the 2020 campaign. .
The designation formally known as Deferred Enforced Departure offers legal protection to any Venezuelan citizen present in the United States from January 20, 2021, for 18 months. This should benefit at least 94,000 Venezuelans in the country without authorization as of 2018, according to the Migration Policy Institute, although analysts believe the current number is likely to be higher.
Trump’s action is seen as a form of pressure that the U.S. government can use against Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan authoritarian leader whom the Trump administration targets with sanctions, limited travel bans and other measures. In January 2019, the U.S. officially recognized the country’s opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, as Venezuela’s interim president.
During the 2020 campaign, Biden said he would offer Temporary Protection Status to Venezuelan immigrants if he won the election, in response to a major request from the Venezuelan-American community in Florida that he was courting. The TPS is practically identical to the Deferred Enforced Departure program in the protections it offers. The DED is issued directly by a president, while the TPS must be approved by the secretary of homeland security.
Republicans and Democrats in Florida have been lobbying for change – South Florida is home to one of the largest Venezuelan populations in the United States – and the White House has long wondered whether to take that step.