The Trump administration rolled back protections for more than 600,000 Venezuelans living in the United States that would have allowed them to stay in the country legally through October 2026.

Instead, newly installed Homeland Security Kristi Noem confirmed on Fox News on Wednesday morning that the administration was undoing the policy put in place by President Joe Biden in the final days of his administration and reverting back to a previous framework that gave the Venezuelans “temporary protected status” through September 2025.

What You Need To Know

  • Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Wednesday that the Trump administration has revoked a decision that would have protected roughly 600,000 people from Venezuela from deportation

  • Under the Biden administration extension, protections were extended until October 2026

  • That now reverts to two separate designations — one that expires this April and one in September

  • Noem has until Saturday to decide what to do about the group whose protections expire in April and until July 12 for those whose protections expire in September

Under the arrangement, Venezuelan nationals living in the U.S. are allowed to stay legally, cannot be removed by immigration enforcement and can legally work. The program does not provide a pathway to citizenship. 

“Before he left town, [former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas signed an order that for 18 months they were going to extend this protection to people who are in temporary protected status, which meant they were going to be able to stay here and violate our laws for another 18 months,” Noem said, specifically referencing a Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua that President Donald Trump and his administration have made a high-profile target.

“The people of this country want these dirtbags out,” Noem said.

In the same interview, the former South Dakota governor did not rule out using the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay detention camp to detain immigrants, including Venezuelans, saying the administration is “evaluating and talking about that right now.” Later in the day, Trump announced he was ordering DHS and the Pentagon to prepare the military base at Guantanamo Bay to house 30,000 immigrants.

Temporary protected status is granted by the U.S. government to individuals from certain countries deemed to be unsafe for them to return — Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, Sudan and Yemen are among the others on the list. Venezuela was given a TPS designation in March 2021 as millions have fled under dictator Nicolás Maduro’s regime and tensions between the two countries have continued to intensify.

The U.S. does not have diplomatic relations with the current Venezuelan government, meaning deportation options are limited. The U.S. hasn’t had any deportation flights to the country in over a year, according to independent researcher Thomas Cartwright, who tracks ICE flights. 

The Biden administration previously extended the protections to more than 230,000 Salvadoreans, 103,000 Ukrainians and 1,900 Sudanese who are already living in the U.S. Noem did not say what would happen to them, and the DHS notice only refers to Venezuelans.

But while Noem focuses on the alleged gang members among the Venezuelan population residing in the United States — she participated in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in the Bronx on Tuesday that resulted in the arrest of a man authorities allege was a gang leader viewed on a viral video in Colorado last year — experts estimate Tren de Aragua’s total membership across the several countries it operates within is in the 5,000 to 7,000 range. And its U.S. presence is believed to be smaller than its activities in Venezuela, Colombia and Peru.

Instead, immigrant communities largely live among the U.S. population peacefully, with more than one-third of TPS holders living in Florida — a population around 300,000, roughly 60% of whom are from Venezuela. “Immigrants are 30 percent less likely to be incarcerated than are U.S.-born individuals who are white,” a Stanford University report from last year found. The right-wing Cato Institute reported in 2020 that immigrants, regardless of their legal status, were less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.

Individuals eligible for TPS cannot have been convicted of a felony or two or more misdemeanors in the U.S., are photographed and fingerprinted by federal officials, and undergo a background check before receiving the protections.

“This is an outrage! Venezuela is currently a violent dictatorship. Thousands have fled to Florida to join family members here through the TPS Program,” said Florida Democratic Rep. Darren Soto. “They’re helping our economy and part of our community. This will be a death sentence to many.”

A Miami Republican expressed support for the TPS program after Noem’s decision, but argued the true solution was for Trump to force Maduro out of power in Venezuela.

“Venezuela’s Dictator Nicolas Maduro jails, beats, rapes, and kills anyone who speaks against him. That’s why I’ve supported TPS for Venezuelans fleeing political persecution. There is a simple solution to this: Maduro has to go! Trump is the only force to get him out. Once Maduro is gone — there will be peace for Venezuelans,” Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar said in a statement to the Miami Herald. “Maduro must go and this will allow Venezuelans to safely return to live with freedom in their homeland.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.