Bipartisan Effort Provides Protected Status for Venezuelans Fleeing Maduro Regime

In a time of unrest in foreign countries, Senator Marco Rubio is joining an effort for Venezuelans fleeing the Maduro regime to have temporary protected status in the United States.

As the chairman of the U.S. Senate Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights and Global Women’s Issues Subcommittee, Senator Marco Rubio is lending his support to a bipartisan effort led by Democrat lawmaker Bob Menendez who introduced the “Venezuela Temporary Protected Status and Asylum Assistance Act.”

His office noted that “Established by the U.S. Congress through the Immigration Act of 1990, TPS is a temporary, renewable program that provides relief from deportation and access to a work permit for foreign nationals from certain countries who are unable to safely return to their home country due to natural disasters, armed conflicts, or other extraordinary conditions.”

Rubio Added that “As Venezuelans continue to face serious threats to their safety and livelihood at the hands of Maduro’s narcoterrorist tyranny, it is clear in-country conditions warrant granting temporary protected status to Venezuelan nationals residing in the U.S. Granting this protection will provide a temporary solution to many Venezuelans who fear returning to their homeland due to the ongoing crisis and extraordinarily difficult conditions.”

Joining Senator Rubio and Menendez is Democrat lawmaker Dick Durbin who also had some thoughts to share on the matter.

Durbin explained that “When I traveled to Venezuela earlier this year, I found a country on the edge, facing overlapping economic, humanitarian, and political crises.  The Venezuelan government under President Maduro has taken a series of repressive and undemocratic actions, including the cowardly jailing of National Assembly member Juan Requesens, that threatens its own people and has isolated it from the world. Venezuela faces a crisis, and the United States has a responsibility to respond in a manner that lives up to our American values.  It is within our power to help keep innocent men, women, and children out of harm’s way by passing the Venezuela Temporary Protected Status Act of 2018.”