MIAMI.- Pro-immigrant groups asked this Tuesday the government of President Joe Biden extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to include a greater number of Nicaraguan nationals and Venezuela.
Gathered at the El Arepazo restaurant in Doral, the petition was launched by members of the Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC), the Venezuelan American Caucus (CVA), the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and other organizations that gathered at that emblematic place.
In the case of Nicaraguans, the nationals of that country have a TPS in force until July 2025, but the beneficiaries of this federal program are the same ones that were included in the initiative implemented in 1999, who since then have been asking for extensions of coverage.
In the last three fiscal years, more than 320,000 Nicaraguans have entered the country through the southern border, according to figures from the organizations that convened the event this Tuesday in Doral.
For Venezuelans, TPS has been extended until March 2024. However, only those who entered the United States before March 2021 are eligible. It is estimated that since that date around 400,000 Venezuelan nationals have been admitted at border ports .
“If TPS is not expanded, many families are in danger of deportation, with the risk of persecution in their home countries,” said former Democratic US Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel Powell.
The former legislator strongly criticized the Daniel Ortega regime in Nicaragua, which she accused of “persecuting” its opponents, representatives of the Church and journalists, among others. In similar terms, she also referred to the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.
According to several of those who spoke during the event, extending TPS to Venezuelans and Nicaraguans who are already in the United States will provide stability to these immigrants, with consequent help to the nation’s economy.
Yareliz Méndez Zamora, spokesperson for the FLIC, recalled that in recent weeks a group of Democratic congressmen sent a letter to President Biden to “use his administrative powers and protect immigrant families.”
For the activist, an aggravating factor in the midst of the uncertainty of not having TPS for “thousands of people” who continue to arrive in the country is a law passed in Florida that penalizes the transportation of immigrants and establishes other limitations for these people.
