‘A blessing.’ How Venezuelan immigrants in South Florida are benefiting from expanded TPS
Since Danny Sánchez came to the United States in December 2021, the Venezuelan lawyer has traveled to over 30 American states.
His favorite so far has been Montana, where cold weather in the summer and the Rocky Mountains remind him of the Andean landscape of his home state back in Venezuela.
Sánchez has found his work stocking grocery store aisles overnight fascinating, learning about consumer psychology and how organizing the shelves a certain way can make a product more attractive to shoppers. He’s grateful for the opportunity to be in the United States, and has spent the last two years focused on how he can contribute to society and the economy.
“The less of a burden we are to the state, the more opportunities we’ll have too,” said Sánchez, who first came to South Florida after entering the United States from Mexico during winter of 2021.
But he’s also felt in limbo, navigating immigrant life without a work permit and unable to return home because of his activities as a member of the political opposition, he said. He applied for employment authorization and Social Security through his asylum case nearly a year ago, but told the Herald he hadn’t yet received the documents. His case, like many others, is years away from being resolved.
Then came the announcement in September from the Biden administration: Over 472,000 additional Venezuelans already in the United States could apply for Temporary Protected Status, an immigration relief for people from countries in turmoil that allows them to live and work in the United States while shielding them from deportation.
Sanchez was among those eligible.
Nearly half of the nationwide population of Venezuelans is concentrated in Florida, according to the Pew Research Center. In South Florida alone, advocates estimate that some 30,000 Venezuelans will benefit from the September TPS expansion.
TPS is temporary and does not lead to permanent legal status. But since the Biden administration announced the expansion of the program for hundreds of thousands more Venezuelans, recipients say the protection has offered them stability as they make their lives in a new country, given them the possibility to pursue their dream careers, and opened the doors to bring family over.
“There are people who have been here for 20 years and haven’t had the opportunity to become documented, so I think it’s a blessing that allows us to do things better in this country,” said Sánchez, who applied for the immigration protection shortly after it was announced.
Many third-country arrivals
The Biden administration first granted Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans in March 2021. In this latest round, Venezuelans are eligible to apply if they were in the United States since July 31, 2023. Before the expansion, there were already about 243,000 beneficiaries through the program, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The latest designation runs through September 2025.
READ MORE: Here is everything you need to know about TPS for Venezuelans
The economic, political and humanitarian situation in Venezuela has displaced over 7 million people, according to the United Nations. Over the last two years, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have shown up at the U.S.-Mexico border, such as Sánchez, while others have come through visas or a parole process for people from Nicaragua, Haiti, Venezuela and Cuba.
Sánchez fled Venezuela in 2017 after authorities searched his home, and lived in several South American countries. In December 2021, he flew to Mexico and made his way to the U.S. border where he turned himself in to American border authorities. As he went through the immigration process, he settled in South Florida among the Venezuelan community. Since the summer, he’s also been staying with a brother in Georgia.
“After two years, when a light at the end of the tunnel showed up and allowed me to have this legal protection, the joy is incredible,” said Sanchez.
To curb irregular migration from Venezuela, the Biden administration restarted deportations to the South American country, prompting anger from many Venezuelans in South Florida, who say that the federal government is exposing returnees to human rights violations and strengthening the government of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
Many Venezuelans have applied for asylum, often on grounds of political persecution. But those cases can take years to process, and getting the protection is not guaranteed. Fifty-one percent of asylum claims from Venezuelan nationals were rejected between 2001 and 2021, according to a report from Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
Vicente Pérez, an immigration attorney and legal coordinator for Casa de Venezuela in Orlando, said that many of the Venezuelans who are now eligible under the new TPS designation had previously been in a country other than Venezuela before arriving in the United States, such as Chile, Panama or Colombia.
“The idea was to work hard in that third country to save a little money and get the whole family to the United States,” Pérez told the Herald.
Pérez noted that the process to get TPS for first-time applicants in this new round has been relatively quick.
His organization has provided Venezuelans workshops and seminars to help them apply for the immigration benefit. Many already had family in Miami or elsewhere in Florida who could host them and help them.
Dilia Milano, 43, from the southern state of Sucre, decided to leave with her husband and young daughter amid the country’s challenging economic circumstances. She had a tourist visa, and stayed with friends in Homestead while the family figured out their next steps.
Milano received Temporary Protected Status this month. She dreams that her daughter will have a professional career in the United States some day.
Milano can now sponsor her mother to come to the United States through the Biden administration parole process, which allows people from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti to come to the United States as long as they have a financial sponsor and pass background checks. People with TPS are allowed to be supporters of people who come through that program.
Having the legal protection has given Milano an unexpected possibility: reuniting her family again.
“I have not seen her for two-and-a-half years. I am feeling overjoyed,” she said.
