Venezuelan's can now get temporary protection in the US

The Department of Homeland Security of the US announced Monday that the Biden administration is enabling hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants in the United States to apply for temporary protection. According to the department, Venezuelans will be eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months until September 2022 - a decision that could help more than 300,000 people, according to a senior U.S. official.

"The living circumstances in Venezuela expose a nation in disturbance that cannot protect its own citizens," Interior Minister Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.

"It is in times of exceptional and momentary situations such as those that the United States emerges to qualify for Venezuelan nationals already present here."

The move fulfills a commitment made by President Joe Biden during the 2020 election campaign to provide shelter to Venezuelans who have left their homeland amid an economic collapse, humanitarian crisis and political unrest under President Nicolas Maduro.

About 5.4 million Venezuelans have emigrated in the past year due to the crisis, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Venezuelans will have to stay in the U.S. continuously from March 8 to qualify for TPS, the Department of Homeland Security said.

The temporary protection gives them the opportunity to stay in the country and work legally.

Colombia also recently offered temporary protection for up to ten years to nearly one million Venezuelan migrants and asylum seekers in that country.

US sanctions

When Biden took office on January 20, he inherited a series of harsh sanctions from his predecessor Donald Trump that further tightened the economic snare on Venezuela.

Trump largely sought to phase out TPS, but was stimulated by legal challenges, while Biden moved to reverse Trump's harsh immigration policies.

The former president signed an executive order on his last full day in office to protect 145,000 Venezuelans from deportation - and Republican lawmakers have asked Biden in recent days to formalize the decision.

However, Biden administration officials told Reuters news agency that the US president was "not in a hurry" to lift sanctions against Venezuela.

An official told Reuters that Biden was moving away from the most one-sided approach of Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign against the country and planned to coordinate more closely with US partners, including the European Union, to force Maduro to be free and to hold fair elections.