Florida’s Democratic Congressional Delegation Seeks Restoration of TPS for Venezuelans

By Mitch Perry, The Florida Phoenix

All eight Democratic U.S. representatives from Florida have signed a letter urging the Trump administration to immediately restore temporary protected status (TPS) to Venezuelans in the U.S. following the administration’s military attack on Venezuela last weekend.

TPS provides a shield against deportation for people from counties in the middle of a humanitarian crises or armed conflict. Since regaining office a year ago, Trump has terminated or announced intent to terminate TPS for more than 1 million individuals, according to the American Immigration Council.

The Democrats addressed their letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Department  of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

In the case of Venezuela, Noem announced in January 2025 that the administration was ending the 18-month extension of TPS for approximately 600,000 Venezuelans that former President Joe Biden had implemented just 10 days days before he left the White House. The Biden White House had said that the extension was warranted “based on the severe humanitarian emergency the country continues to face due to political and economic crises under the inhumane Maduro regime.”

The letter sent on Friday to Rubio and Noem was signed by 70 congressional Democrats.

“Hundreds of thousands of lawful Venezuelan residents who benefited from TPS … are facing deportation in the coming weeks to instability, desperate poverty and danger — conditions that have become even more dangerous since President Trump ordered military strikes and special operations to remove dictator Nicolás Maduro,” the letter says. “Many Venezuelans are hiding out in their homes, terrified of follow-on strikes or harassment by the regime which remains in place.”

“The Trump Administration’s calamitous decision to terminate TPS for Venezuelans in January 2025 was rooted in a determination that conditions in the country had improved,” the letter adds. “This claim was baseless at the time, and, with the regime left in place, it is certainly untrue now. This termination of lawful status has caused unimaginable fear and anxiety for law-abiding Venezuelan families, who passed criminal background checks, earned work permits, and paid fees and taxes.”

The Democrats go on to say in the letter that the Trump administration has “abandoned the Venezuelans that remain in Venezuela who yearn for freedom and a democratic transition,” noting how Maduro’s “criminal accomplices remain in power,” specifically mentioning interim president Delcy Rodriguez, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello (who was indicted on narco-terrorism charges alongside Maduro by the U.S. Justice Department in 2020).

“We are disturbed that the Administration has vocally backed these individuals, who are complicit in the worst abuses of the Venezuelan regime over the last decade, while dismissing the pro-democracy leadership of the legitimate president-elect, Edmundo González, and Nobel Peace Prize winning opposition leader María Corina Machado,” the Democrats write.

No congressional Republicans signed on to the letter.