Trump Administration Ends TPS for 250,000 Venezuelan Migrants Amid Escalating US–Venezuela Tensions

Mexico City, Mexico, September 4, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Donald Trump administration announced Wednesday it will end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 250,000 Venezuelan migrants, setting a September 10 deadline for them to leave the United States or face deportation. 

“Weighing public safety, national security, migration factors, immigration policy, economic considerations, and foreign policy, it’s clear that allowing Venezuelan nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is not in America’s best interest,” said US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) spokesman Matthew Tragesser in a statement.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that the decision to end TPS protection for Venezuelan migrants after determining that “conditions in Venezuela no longer meet the TPS statutory requirements.”

The announcement comes as Washington escalates destabilizing actions toward the Nicolás Maduro government in Caracas. US military forces carried out a lethal strike Tuesday against a small vessel that was allegedly transporting drugs from Venezuela. The alleged assassination in international waters marks the first action of its kind since Trump designated a series of cartels and gangs, including the so-called Tren de Aragua, as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations.”

Legal scholars have questioned the legality of the US strike.

Washington has alleged, without evidence, that Maduro himself is directing the operations of Tren de Aragua associates. The Venezuelan government has vehemently denied the allegation, as well as the US’ claim that the president is also the head of the Cartel de los Soles, despite never offering court-backed evidence that proves the cartel’s existence.

The latest decision to rescind TPS affects the roughly 268,000 Venezuelan beneficiaries of the 2021 designation who will see their status expire on Sept. 10, 2025.

In January 2025, the Trump administration revoked the TPS extension for Venezuelans, reversing the previous Biden administration’s decision. A federal judge temporarily blocked that effort.

DHS later revoked the status and work permits of over 500,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who had entered the country legally, telling beneficiaries of a “parole” program that their permission to remain in the US had been rescinded and they should leave the country immediately.

Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has set out on a multi-pronged campaign to carry out what it calls the “largest deportation operation” in US history, with a number of actions specifically targeting the Venezuelan population inside the country.

Edited by Andreína Chávez Alava in Caracas.