By: EFE
By: EFE
Three US congressmen presented a bill on Tuesday that seeks to grant the immigration program Temporary Protection Statute (TPS) to Venezuelan immigrants, after the failure of a similar initiative in 2020.
The TPS, which the outgoing President Donald Trump , is on his way “to save some from deportation , 000 Venezuelan citizens in the United States ”, explained today promoters, Democrats Darren Soto and Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Republican Mario Díaz-Balart .
Soto, of Puerto Rican origin, said that the whole world has witnessed “how little human rights matter” to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, “carrying out arbitrary arrests, censorship of media, the arrest of opponents and the use of lethal forces against peaceful protesters ”.
“Until political stability and food security are restored and economic recovery begins, designating Venezuela for TPS is the best way to indicate our support for the refugees in Florida and in the rest of the country, “Soto said in a statement.
The bipartisan initiative “automatically designates Venezuelans eligible for TPS for an initial period of 18 months, with the option of renewal. ”
Under TPS , also endorsed by the president-elect, Democrat Joe Biden, who takes office next 20 January, “the Venezuelans would be protected from deportation and would be granted a work authorization, which would allow people to pay taxes and contribute to their communities. ”
TPS“ continues to be crucial for the thousands of Venezuelan citizens who have sought security in the State s United after fleeing from the oppressive and murderous dictatorship of Maduro, ”said Congressman Díaz-Balart.
TPS is an immigration program created in 1990 with which the US grants extraordinary permits to nationals of affected countries due to armed conflicts or natural disasters.
Since then, the United States has granted TPS to countries such as Honduras and Nicaragua after the passage in 1998 of the devastating Hurricane Mitch, to El Salvador following a series of earthquakes in 2001, to Haiti in 2010 for its catastrophic earthquake and Sudan in 2014 due to the conflict in South Sudan .