FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem are ending a 2021 designation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuela, the agency told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
Under President Biden, two designations of TPS were established for Venezuela. The first was established in 2021, which is being terminated today, and the second in 2023, which the Trump administration terminated on April 7,2023.Â
“Given Venezuela’s substantial role in driving irregular migration and the clear magnet effect created by Temporary Protected Status, maintaining or expanding TPS for Venezuelan nationals directly undermines the Trump Administration’s efforts to secure our southern border and manage migration effectively,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital.Â
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“Weighing public safety, national security, migration factors, immigration policy, economic considerations, and foreign policy, it’s clear that allowing Venezuelan nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is not in America’s best interest,” the spokesperson added.
With the termination of the 2021 TPS designation, 268,156 Venezuelan nationals currently in the U.S. will lose their status and will no longer be legally allowed to reside in the United States, according to figures shared by Fox News Digital from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
3,738 pending initial applications to be eligible for TPS and 102,935 pending renewal applications will also be terminated as of today.Â
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USCIS recommends those no longer protected by TPS use the CBP Home Mobile App to facilitate leaving the U.S.Â
The TPS designation will expire September 10, 2025, and termination will be effective 60 days after the publication of the Federal Register notice.Â
After the April termination of the 2023 TPS designation, roughly 348,000 Venezuelan nationals lost their protected status and were required to make arrangements to leave the U.S.Â
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The move comes after Fox News Digital reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) found that some Venezuelan officials “likely facilitate” migration for members of the violent, criminal Tren De Aragua gang from the South American country to the U.S.
On Monday, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused President Donald Trump and the U.S. of “seeking a regime change through military threat,” after the Trump administration increased naval presence in the region.Â
“Venezuela is confronting the biggest threat that has been seen on our continent in the last 100 years,” Maduro told journalists. “A situation like this has never been seen.”
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On Wednesday, Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed to “Fox & Friends” that the U.S. had successfully carried out a military strike in the Caribbean that destroyed a Venezuelan drug boat and killed 11 alleged Tren De Aragua narco-terrorists.Â
