Jesse Scheckner
Following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that stripped Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants, three Republican members of Congress from Miami issued a forceful joint statement defending Venezuelan immigrants and blaming Joe Biden for the fallout.
They did not mention that President Donald Trump, Biden’s predecessor and successor in the White House, is behind the TPS-removal policy.
In a press release issued May 21, U.S. Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez, and María Elvira Salazar criticized the Biden administration’s immigration policies and emphasized their continued support for TPS protections for Venezuelans, many of whom reside in their districts.
“Unfortunately, decent, hardworking Venezuelans who have integrated into our South Florida communities and contributed to the economic prosperity of our great country are paying the price for President Biden’s negligence and false promises when he opened up the southern border to millions,” they said in a joint statement Wednesday.
Under Biden, roughly 2.4 million immigrants entered the U.S. each year, and about 60% of them did so without legal authorization, according to analyses of government data by The New York Times and Goldman Sachs. Total net migration during the Biden administration likely exceeded 8 million people, a higher rate than any other period on record.
The Cuban American lawmakers contrasted law-abiding Venezuelan immigrants with criminals they say exploited the border, such as members of Tren de Aragua, a violent transnational gang.
“There is a clear distinction between individuals … and the many Venezuelans who have arrived in our country, fleeing the political crises under the repressive dictatorship of Maduro with legitimate claims of persecution,” they said.
The statement comes two days after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-1 decision, allowed the Trump administration to revoke TPS for roughly 350,000 Venezuelans. TPS had granted legal protection and work permits to individuals from countries deemed unsafe due to political or humanitarian crises.
The lawmakers reiterated their support for a case-by-case review of Venezuelans facing persecution and said they raised concerns directly with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, who ordered the revocation along with another for Haitian immigrants, whom Díaz-Balart, Giménez, and Salazar did not mention, in March.
“We are actively working on securing a meeting with Sec. Noem to ensure our concerns are addressed and that the voices of those affected are heard,” the lawmakers said, noting that Díaz-Balart broached the subject with her in a Feb. 6 letter and Giménez requested a meeting during a congressional hearing last week. Noem did not immediately agree to a meeting with them.
Early this month, Noem informed U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Weston Democrat and the Co-Chair of Florida’s congressional delegation, that DHS intended to end TPS “as soon as it obtains relief” from a March 31 appeals court’s order to continue TPS for Venezuelans.
Wasserman Schulz then filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court supporting the continuance of TPS and criticizing the Trump administration as seeking “to usurp congressional authority through its novel interpretation of the TPS statute.”
Every Democrat in Florida’s delegation cosigned the brief. No Republicans from the state did.
On Tuesday, after Salazar sad on X that she was “deeply disappointed” by the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Demcoratic Congressional Campaign Committee blasted her for what it called an “insincere request to Trump” to extend Deferred Enforced Departure — an administrative stay of removal — to Venezuelans and other immigrants with large South Florida populations.
“Salazar said nothing when Donald Trump moved to end TPS for Venezuelans,” spokesperson Madison Andrus said. “Either María Elvira Salazar is grossly ineffective at advocating for her communities, or she’s simply lying about her support for them.”
In their Wednesday statement, Díaz-Balart, Giménez, and Salazar praised Trump’s immigration efforts, including his grant of DED to Venezuelans in 2021.
“Since Day One, President Trump has been successful in restoring the rule of law at our southern border,” they said. “He has demonstrated his unwavering solidarity with the cause of freedom in Venezuela, (many of whom) cannot return to Venezuela because they will be politically persecuted. We will not stop advocating for the constituencies we are proud to represent, and which include the highest concentrations of Venezuelans in the country.”
The Supreme Court’s decision has left many Venezuelans in legal limbo. TPS-linked work permits and driver’s licenses are expiring, leaving families vulnerable to deportation. Florida, home to nearly half of all Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S., is expected to be especially hard-hit.
In January, 10 days before Trump retook office, Díaz-Balart told Florida Politics during a stop in Pinecrest that Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Cubans who live in the U.S. illegally but otherwise obey the law had little to fear from the incoming administration.
“You can’t deport somebody back to a country where you know they’re going to potentially suffer real persecution,” he said.
He stressed that the immediate targets of deportation would be the roughly 1.4 million immigrants living statewide with existing deportation orders and “thousands upon thousands of convicted criminals” who are noncitizens.
“They’ll be the priority, and (Trump has) been very clear about this,” he said. “You have to start with those who we know are dangerous, and that’s going to take some time. It’s not like there’s a little neighborhood with a sign that says, “I’m a rapist and I’m here illegally.’”
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Jacob Ogles contributed to this report.
One comment
R Russell
May 22, 2025 at 5:52 pm
Let’s be clear, had Biden, or should I say, whoever was behind the curtain had not opened the border, the 300,000 Venezuelans would not be getting deported, as they would have stayed in Venezuela all this time!