Here is a summary of the TPS program’s risks of termination and how Florida has responded.
When the first Trump administration took office, there were over a dozen Temporary Protected Status programs in place. (Go here for a decription of TPS.) The administration almost immediately began to terminate some. These terminations were blocked by courts. However, in 2020 a Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the administration’s decision to terminate for about 300,000 individuals (Ramos v. Nielsen).
The Biden administration canceled the termination and expanded TPS. Towards the end of the Biden administration, there were 864,000 TPS beneficiaries in the United States, from 16 countries. Some 344,000 of them were Venezuelans. However, another 100,000 Venezuelans were in application for TPS status. (These figures leave out humanitarian parole numbers, which are about 117,000 for Venezuelans. These protections were terminated on Marfh 25.)
On January 28, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem terminated Venezuelan TPS status. Protections were set to end on April 7. (Here is DHS’s entry in the Federal Register.) This termination and that for Haitians was appealed.
Termination’s impact would be most intensely felt in Florida, which hosts a relative high share of TPS persons, especially Venezuelans. Immediately after Noem’s public announcement, on January 29, three Florida representatives (Diaz-Balart, Giménez and Salazar) released a joint statement in solidarity with the Venezuelan community, emphasizing the need for humane treatment and legal protections for those fleeing the Maduro regime.
On March 31, in National TPS Alliance v. Noem, et al., U.S. District Judge Edward Chen issued a nationwide injunction blocking the termination of Venezuela’s TPS designation. (Go here and here.) The ruling stated that DHS’s actions were arbitrary, capricious, and likely motivated by unconstitutional bias. Protections were extended while litigation continued. Chen ordered the continuation of TPS protections until April 2, 2026. The extension was applauded by Diaz-Balart, Giménez and Salazar. On April 3, Chen open up the opportunity for other TPS groups to be protected until litigation is completed. Had termination been in effect, many of the impacted persons would probably have applied for asylum.
Secretary NOEM brought up Tren de Aragua in justifying the termination of TPS for Venezuelans.
Judge Chen wrote in his 78 page decision, “[T]he Secretary’s rationale is entirely lacking in evidentiary support. For example, there is no evidence that Venezuelan TPS holders are members of the TdA gang, have connections to the gang, and/or commit crimes. Venezuelan TPS holders have lower rates of criminality than the general population. Generalization of criminality to the Venezuelan TPS population as a whole is baseless and smacks of racism predicated on generalized false stereotypes….Acting on the basis of a negative group stereotype and generalizing such stereotype to the entire group is the classic example of racism.”
The Palm Beach Post ran profiles of Venezuelan individuals in the Palm Beach area who are TPS persons. for example, “In Venezuela, Alexandra was a teacher, a graphic designer and a political activist. She said the Venezuelan government targeted her last year due to her involvement with the opposition party and police officers raided home, taking her computer and documents from her desk….Alexandra began working at Chick-fil-A. Six months later, she returned to teaching, working at a daycare from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. In the evening, she attends English classes. On weekends, she takes classes to become a middle school teacher.”
The threat of deportation of TPS persons has caused a high level of anxiety about the threat of ICE arrests independently of TPS. Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has said there will no “immigration sweeps” in county. Bradshaw said at an event with Hispanic community leaders, ”If you’re in your house, in your business, in the field, we’re not going after you. No,no, no, that is not going to happen. Please, please, please tell your neighbors don’t panic about this. I promise you that is not going to happen.”