MIAMI — Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in the United States will lose temporary protected status at the end of the day Friday, leaving many of them vulnerable to deportation to a homeland in extreme turmoil.

Losing the protection: a group of about 268,000 Venezuelans who became eligible for TPS in March 2021 under the Biden administration.

The loss of TPS means that large swaths of the Venezuelan community will find themselves without a legal immigration status or work authorization at a time when the U.S. is weighing whether to attack targets in Venezuela. The Trump administration has been blowing up boats in the Caribbean and Latin America’s Pacific coast, claiming they are carrying drugs.

Venezuelans left without TPS may now be forced to return to a country plunged in a humanitarian crisis and economic turbulence, exacerbated by political repression — and now also facing the possibility of war with the world’s largest military superpower.

“Every Venezuelan, or any immigrant who isn’t a legal resident or citizen, feels distressed and anxious. Beyond the immigration challenges within the U.S., there’s a deeper reality: Venezuela remains under a horrifying dictatorship,” one Venezuelan activist losing TPS on Friday told the Miami Herald. She asked that her name not be used because she fears deportation.

The TPS holders join another 350,000 Venezuelans who were granted the benefit in October 2023 and lost it in April 2025. In September, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the green light to end TPS under the Venezuela designation, reversing a lower court’s decision to keep it in place through October 2026.

Perhaps no other state will feel the impact of the end of TPS like Florida, where about 230,000 Venezuelans with TPS resided as of March 2025. Many Venezuelans with TPS have pending asylum cases or submitted paperwork for work visas and green cards. But ongoing immigration applications don’t confer legal status, and those who don’t have a separate pathway to remain in the United States will find themselves unlawfully in the U.S. after Friday. And the Trump administration is now regularly detaining people with pending asylum cases and other immigration-benefit applications, arguing that even if they have an authorized stay in the United States they have no legal status.

In the notice announcing the termination of the 2021 protections, the Department of Homeland Security said that Venezuela does not meet conditions for TPS anymore and that there were notable improvements in certain key areas. It pointed to an economic outlook, including a reduction in hyperinflation and increase in oil production. But it also emphasized that the protections are ending because it’s not in American interests to keep Venezuela’s TPS designation in place.

But experts, lawyers and activists point out that conditions in Venezuela still merit TPS because it’s not safe for Venezuelans to return, especially those who have opposed the government of strongman Nicolas Maduro. A State Department’s travel advisory warns Americans to not go to Venezuela, citing the risk of arbitrary detention, kidnappings and torture as well as a poor health infrastructure, civil unrest and shortages of basic needs like water, electricity and medicine. It warns those who go or opt to stay in Venezuela to prepare a will.

Options still available for some

In October, the Herald documented that hundreds of Venezuelans who had TPS have been detained, most of them under the 2023 designation that expired in April. At least one man under the 2023 designation who was deported back to Venezuela.

Elizabeth Amaran, a South Florida-based immigration lawyer, told the Herald that many beneficiaries still have options available, such as pending asylum applications or other ongoing immigration processes. In these cases, even if TPS expires, individuals remain protected by their active proceedings before immigration authorities.

Amaran highlighted that TPS functions as a “stopped clock” regarding the one-year deadline to apply for asylum. This means that those who entered the country in 2021 or 2023 and applied for TPS before reaching one year of presence can still reclaim that time and submit an asylum application. However, individuals who withdrew their asylum cases or closed their immigration court cases after receiving TPS must now reopen them to remain protected.

There is a significant number of Venezuelans who never applied for asylum and relied solely on TPS. Some even had their asylum cases closed or withdrawn because they received this status. With the expiration of TPS, these individuals are left completely unprotected and face the possibility of being detained or deported.

Only a small group of TPS holders who re-registered in January 2025 retains an automatic extension of their work permit until October 2026. The danger is greatest for those with final deportation orders, as they can be removed immediately once their temporary status expires. In contrast, those without prior orders must go through the immigration court process and will have the opportunity to present defenses before a judge.

“Surprisingly — surprisingly, I would have thought there wasn’t a single Venezuelan with TPS that has been left without protection, but many people have called me. We’ve actually been announcing this for a while now; the Supreme Court’s decision came out a couple of months ago, and still, many people have called who never filed for asylum. So I’d say there’s a large group,” said Amaran.

‘I don’t want to be another disappeared person’

A Venezuelan activist who requested to speak anonymously because she fears being deported to Venezuela, is among those who lost her TPS on Friday. She has lived in the United States for two decades, and has a deportation order that could send her back to a country she believes is deadly for those who, like her, have defied the Maduro regime.

The activist has a pending political asylum case and an appeal under review, but her status remains uncertain after recent policy changes. Some asylum petitions have been denied, while others are still in process. The Venezuelan government annulled her passport, which means she cannot emigrate elsewhere either.

She’s also a mother and longtime Florida resident with a home, cars and family who has spent half her life in the United States. Her children grew up here; her social and economic life is tied to South Florida’s Venezuelan community. She fears that returning to Venezuela would amount to a prison sentence — or worse.

“I don’t see myself outside this country — not out of stubbornness, but because of what we’ve done for democracy in Venezuela, “ said the activist.

Her fears echo reports from Human Rights Watch and the human-rights group Foro Penal, which document hundreds of arbitrary detentions and disappearances. The activist believes she could face fabricated charges like “treason” or “incitement,” common tools of repression.

If her appeal for political asylum fails, she could be deported at any moment. Still, the Venezuelan woman still insists on hope.

“I have faith that the American system, with all its flaws, will recognize the truth in my case. “I don’t want to be another disappeared person.”

Elected officials speak up

The Cuban American delegation from Miami in Congress has increasingly found itself on a political tightrope, trying to defend its constituents targeted by the president’s immigration policies while avoiding open criticism of the administration. They have said they had been in contact Homeland Security Kristi Noem about the issue, but so far the administration has pushed forward with the termination of the protections for over half-a-million Venezuelans.

Of the three Cuban American members of the delegation, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar has been the most vocal about how Trump’s policies are affecting Hispanic communities in South Florida. She told the Herald in a statement that “No law-abiding Venezuelan should be sent back until their country is free, period.”

“I will always stand with the Venezuelan community and defend temporary protected status for Venezuelans until Maduro and his illegitimate narco-regime are removed from power and brought to justice. And I pray that day comes very soon,” said Salazar, who has co-sponsored legislations to protect Venezuelan immigrants and grant them TPS and has sent letters to Noem to grant protections to recent arrivals from nations like Venezuela.

On Friday, Miami U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez said he supported a “case-by-case approach for Venezuelan exiles as they pursue political asylum in the U.S.”

“Here in South Florida, Venezuelan Americans are law-abiding residents who contribute meaningfully to our local economy and community,” said Giménez. “As I have always said, although all members of the Tren de Aragua criminal organization are from Venezuela, not all Venezuelans are part of Tren de Aragua. We must not allow the actions of a few criminals to define an entire community that overwhelmingly respects our laws and values.”

Giménez had previously sent a letter to Noem asking her to find solutions for individuals affected by the TPS termination, also on a case-by-case basis. U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz Balart did not respond to a Herald inquiry about his views on the decision to end TPS for thousands of Venezuelans.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is co-chair of the Congressional Venezuela Democracy Caucus and has sponsored legislation to restore Venezuela’s TPS, on Friday called Trump’s termination the protections “the ultimate betrayal of Venezuelans who trusted he’d target real criminals for deportation, not families who work hard and follow the law.”

“I’ve led the fight against Trump’s attempts to deport law-abiding Venezuelans to Maduro’s narco-terrorist dictatorship, and I won’t stop fighting until our community is free from fear,” Wasserman Schultz said.

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