The Legal Aid Society and 36 immigration advocacy organizations sent a letter to the Biden Administration requesting that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelan immigrants be re-designated to include those who arrived in the United States after March 9, 2021, given the ongoing political persecution, collapse of basic services, food insecurity, and rampant violence still pervasive in Venezuela today.

“As there does not seem to be an end to this crisis in the short term, the United States must act in the wake of such a humanitarian emergency by, once again, providing immigration relief in the form of TPS,’ the letter reads in part. “Returning to Venezuela would endanger the freedom of many who have been targeted by the Maduro regime due to their social and political activism and expression.”

Recently arrived Venezuelan immigrants contribute to our local, state, and federal economies — on average, they are 12% more educated than the general native-born U.S. population, generally have about the same household income as their native-born counterparts, and create 25% of the businesses in the United States. Undocumented immigrants alone contribute an estimated $11.74 billion annually in state and local taxes.

“Re-designating TPS to include recently arrived Venezuelan nationals is a humane, common-sense solution that will help more than a half-million Venezuelan asylum seekers obtain self-sufficiency in the United States quickly and efficiently,” said Deborah Lee, Attorney-in-Charge of the Immigration Law Unit at The Legal Aid Society.

“The Biden Administration has re-designated TPS status to countries in crisis before, and it has proved extremely beneficial for both the asylum seekers and our country,” she continued. “The United States is a nation made up of immigrants that strengthen and enrich our society, and this Administration must take action to ensure that all immigrants are protected during this time of ongoing economic and political hardship in Venezuela.”