DORAL, Fla. – Local 10 News spoke with a TPS holder impacted by the Supreme Court’s ruling on Tuesday.
He is also fighting for asylum, working as a valet attendant with a desire to return to college to pursue a degree in civil engineering.
He explained how the Venezuelan-exile community in Doral feels anxious, insecure and targeted.
“Sometimes I have the fear when I am driving to my work, that maybe the police can roll on me and they can deport me, make up any excuse to deport me,” he said. “Because you can see the news, a lot of people from Venezuela deported without any felonies, any crime record. It is crazy, we are feeling like the Jews in the old time, no home, it is sad, scary.”
That was how the man felt before Monday’s Supreme Court ruling that stripped him of deportation protections.
“When you woke up this morning, your first full day without deportation protection, what went through your mind?” asked Local 10’s Christina Vazquez.
“I feel insecure, fear. It is so sad. I don’t know (where I would go), right now I don’t have family, only here and Venezuela,” he added. “I don’t have family in another country, I don’t have another nationality. One day you are sleeping, that morning you could have the news that they deport you. That is the reality a lot of family are worried about that, they don’t know if somebody is with ICE or go to the house.”
He explained why in his view, returning to the brutal regime he escaped, Nicolas Maduro’s dictatorship, is not an option.
“We can go to jail and they say you are a terrorist, that’s it, we can’t go back,” he said.
The U.S. designated Venezuela for TPS on the basis of conditions in Venezuela that prevented nationals from returning safely. He is hopeful about his pending asylum application, even though his uncle, who is raising a daughter in South Florida, was just denied.
“He is concerned about ICE or maybe somebody coming to him and deport to Venezuela, it is a big fear,” he said. “that fear began in January when this show began. It is terrible. They don’t know if ICE is coming to his house, it is paranoia all day.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who describes himself as the “son of Cuban immigrants who left Cuba in pursuit of the American Dream” said in 2016 “We are the descendants of immigrants and exiles … This is who we are, and let us fight to ensure that this is who we remain. For if we lose that about our country, we’ll still be rich and we’ll still be powerful, but we will no longer be special.”
While a U.S. Senator for Florida, Rubio was a vocal advocate for TPS for Venezuelans, hosting TPS Day events in several cities in South Florida.
In 2021 he posted to the platform ‘X’, “Senator Rubio welcomed the @DHSgov designation granting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to eligible Haitian nationals residing in the U.S. for a period of 18 months.”
His office also touted “Ukrainian Outreach” events for Ukrainian refugees where staff, his posts said, helped “constituents with expediting pending immigration cases and guidance on social services,” stating his office was “ready to provide assistance to those affected by the tragedy in Ukraine.”
On Tuesday, he posted these remarks on X: “This notion that somehow we have to accept anyone who wants to come to the United States is absurd.”
“His parents are from Cuba, he is a children to immigrants,” the TPS holder said. “I can’t understand him. He can’t understand that a lot of family immigrants like his family? It is contradictory. To me, I can’t trust him. The U.S. citizens, they have the wrong idea about the Venezuelan community, they treat us like terrorists, criminals, that is not true. I have a lot of friends, co-workers, family, they come here to build a new life, to be free of a dictatorship in Venezuela, for a new future, a big future, a great future. Right now they don’t know what will happen with their life. Everything they building here is going down because they have fear to deportation right now.”
CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMING
“Article I, Section 8, Clause 4 of the Constitution provides Congress with the ‘power . . . To establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization . . . throughout the United States.’ The Supreme Court has described naturalization as ‘the act of adopting a foreigner, and clothing him with the privileges of a native citizen.’”
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
LEGAL ANALYSIS FROM DORAL VICE MAYOR MAUREEN PORRAS
“It is a very confusing time, people are being pulled back and forth. If there is a different ruling, whether it is the Supreme Court, or either of the district courts, then that can change this stay and therefore that is where you have a lot of confusion, have a go, no go, from the different jurisdictions and that is what creates such a confusing atmosphere right now.”
Vasquez: Does it also create an opportunity for hope?
“Absolutely, it is not the end of the road. In fact, this is again, another setback, but again, we could have a decision whether it is from the Supreme Court, or one of the lower courts to say that, TPS is going to continue, that it is not going to be terminated, and people could still have some time to prepare for termination. During this time, while they are not protected they could be picked up, they could be removed, and if the courts rule to continue TPS then those folks will have to, they are out of luck honestly.”
Vasquez: Some of those might be on an asylum track, does that give them some protection?
“Not necessarily. I think that with the recent BIA ruling that came out last Thursday that essentially said most folks who entered through the border that had entered without authorization are not afforded bond and therefore they have to be under mandatory detention, which means that they need to go through their immigration court proceedings and their asylum proceedings while detained. And so if they have to through their asylum proceedings while detained, that means their proceedings will go much faster, which means if you lose the asylum case, you could be removed a lot faster, even before there is a final ruling in the termination of TPS.”