The Donald Trump administration rescinded the Temporary Protection Permit (TPS) for 250,000 more Venezuelans - 320,000 had already lost it - who will be deprived of their residence and work authorization in the United States starting at midnight on Friday, November 7, after years of work and roots.

First modification: 07/11/2025 - 19:40

On November 8, the United States will have a quarter of a million migrants more susceptible to deportation, after the temporary protected status granted to Venezuelan migrants was revoked by order of Donald Trump, who slammed the door on the open arms policy undertaken by his predecessor, Joe Biden.

This is the first time in 35 years that a federal administration has completely rescinded a TPS status (Temporary Protected Status, in Spanish: Estatus de Protección Temporal) for an entire nationality.

Between returning to her country and being left without legal status in the United States, Oriana, a Venezuelan immigrant who does not want to give her last name, has already made the decision: "We cannot return to Venezuela, there is nothing left for us there, I prefer to stay underground," the 38-year-old mother tells EFE.

Oriana lived for five years in Florida, the state with a Republican majority where the most migrants with TPS live, until she decided to move after learning of the end of protection for Venezuelans.

She chose to start from scratch, without the document that allows her to work legally and shields her from deportation. "I stopped using that permit, I'm adapting to my new reality," says the immigrant, who starting this Friday will disconnect her cell phone number so as not to leave a trace to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) in the "new life" that awaits her.

The Venezuelans who are at greater risk of immediate detention, after losing TPS, are those who had a previous deportation order, Fernando Romo, immigration lawyer and main legal advisor of the Association of Salvadorans of Los Angeles (ASOSAL), explained to EFE.

“The TPS puts a stop to deportation orders, but when you lose protection this order is activated and you will surely be searched by immigration agents,” the lawyer explained.

Migrants who lose TPS as of today still have the options of requesting asylum, special visas for victims of certain crimes or family reunification, by relatives with US nationality, although, according to the jurist, "they are not [processes] easy to win."

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Venezuelan opposition deputy Henrique Capriles regretted that the decision of the Republican Administration leaves thousands of families "in uncertainty after years of effort and honest work."

"Those same Venezuelans, starting today, are at risk of being persecuted in the US, mistreated and deported. Forcing them to return without guarantees of freedom, democracy or decent living conditions is not only unfair, but also violates their human rights," Capriles wrote.

A lifeline to escape

The nation of Venezuela was first designated as a TPS beneficiary in March 2021, under the administration of Democrat Joe Biden. The measure initially sheltered 320,000 migrants fleeing the political and economic crisis in Nicolás Maduro's Venezuela.

In September 2023, the Biden administration expanded TPS to an additional 280,000 Venezuelans, for a total of 600,000 beneficiaries under both designations. Days before leaving office, in January 2025, Biden extended the protection for 18 more months, until October 2026.

However, one of Donald Trump's first measures upon arriving at the White House, with a campaign promise to toughen immigration policy, was to revoke Biden's extension, considering that Venezuela "no longer meets the statutory requirements of the TPS."

Matthew Tragesser, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), stated that "when weighing public safety, national security, immigration factors, immigration policy, economic considerations and foreign policy, it is clear that allowing Venezuelan citizens to temporarily remain in the United States is not in the best interest of the United States."

The Department of Homeland Security established that the 320,000 Venezuelans under the 2023 designation would lose protections on April 7, 2025, while the 250,000 under the 2021 designation would lose them on September 10, 2025.

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The fight dragged on in the courts, and in March 2025 a federal judge in San Francisco blocked Trump's initiative, considering it "arbitrary, capricious, and motivated by unconstitutional animosity."

Since then, the case has been decided five times by different courts with alternating results. Finally, the United States Supreme Court gave the green light to the Republican Administration's measure.

In sum, 600,000 Venezuelans as of midnight on Friday, November 7, will be at risk of immediate detention and deportation, which represents the largest number of people who have lost TPS in the history of protection.

Collapse of a humanitarian mechanism

Temporary Protected Status is a humanitarian mechanism established by the US Congress through the Immigration Act of 1990. It was initially intended to protect Salvadorans fleeing the civil war, but over time it benefited citizens of multiple countries.

This permit enables citizens of designated countries who are already physically in the United States to reside and work temporarily, without fear of deportation. Due to its provisional nature, TPS does not grant permanent resident status or lead to citizenship, but rather provides protection to migrants while extraordinary conditions persist in the country of origin.

A country may be designated for TPS when it faces ongoing armed conflict, an environmental disaster, or "other extraordinary and temporary conditions" that make the return of its citizens unsafe.

As of March 2025, approximately 1.1 million people resided in the United States under TPS protection from multiple designated countries. Of these, the largest population came from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

Currently, a dozen countries maintain TPS, after several revocations and litigation under the Trump administration.

Afghanistan, Cameroon, Haiti and Nepal have already lost TPS this year, as well as 45,000 Nicaraguans and Hondurans who were beneficiaries until recently. Syria will lose it on November 21, 2025, while migrants from South Sudan and Haiti face the imminent threat of being left unprotected at the beginning of 2026, according to the White House schedule.

With EFE, Reuters and AP

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