Brandon offers nearly half-a-million Venezuelan migrants legal status and work permits

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Washington — The Biden administration on Wednesday offered nearly half-a-million Venezuelan migrants in the U.S. the ability to live and work in the country legally, approving a longstanding request from cities struggling to house asylum-seekers.

The Department of Homeland Security expanded, or redesignated, the Temporary Protected Status program for Venezuelan migrants, allowing recent arrivals to apply for the deportation protections and work permits offered by the policy. CBS News first reported the move earlier Wednesday.

Previously, only Venezuelans who arrived in the U.S. before March 2021 qualified for TPS, a program created by Congress in 1990 to offer a temporary safe haven to migrants from countries facing humanitarian crises, such as an armed conflict or a natural disaster.

By redesignating Venezuela's TPS program, the U.S. is rendering the record number of Venezuelans who have reached the U.S. over the past two years eligible for the status. An estimated 472,000 additional Venezuelans are expected to qualify for TPS, which has already allowed about 242,000 migrants from that country to obtain the status, according to DHS figures. Venezuelans who reached the U.S. after the end of July will not qualify for TPS.

"Temporary protected status provides individuals already present in the United States with protection from removal when the conditions in their home country prevent their safe return," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement. "That is the situation that Venezuelans who arrived here on or before July 31 of this year find themselves in."

While others without legal status will also qualify for TPS, the announcement will mostly benefit the more than 400,000 Venezuelan migrants who have trekked to the U.S. southern border over the past two-and-a-half years as part of a massive exodus from the South American country.

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