South Florida Republicans Are Running Out Of Time To Change Trump’s Mind On Venezuelan Immigrants

MIAMI — Donald Trump’s repeated promises to aggressively crack down on immigration have ensnared Republicans in his home state, who say the administration has made a dire mistake that could harm South Florida communities.

Trump’s administration axed temporary protections for Venezuelan immigrants in the early days of his second term. In less than a month, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans nationally stand to lose temporary protected status, opening them up to deportation — leaving South Florida Republican Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar, Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlos Gimenez scrambling to try to convince Trump to change his mind.

“That's our plan right now — working with the administration and changing some of their policies so that we can help the Venezuelan people,” Gimenez told POLITICO.

The fight over the protections for these Venezuelans sets up a collision course between the president’s “America First” worldview — which is predicated on cracking down on immigration — and his deep level of support in South Florida, particularly among Miami Latinos.

And how it ends up will be a big test for how much sway the Miami delegation will hold in Trump 2.0.

All three members have repeatedly stated there is “no greater ally” to Venezuela’s freedom than Trump. Trump has embraced the Venezuelan opposition and denounced President Nicolas Maduro, as the Hill trio called on him to do. Just last month, Trump announced he’d be revoking the licenses of oil companies like Chevron to export from Venezuela — a maximum-pressure strategy that Salazar, Diaz-Balart and Gimenez had been pushing for since the Biden administration.

The three members also have a powerful ally in Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also a South Florida Cuban American. Rubio, all three said, is firmly on the same page as them when it comes to protecting Venezuelans on TPS.

The State Department declined to comment.

TPS — which provides temporary legal status to immigrants from a country that is unsafe to return to — is one of the only levers the executive branch has to unilaterally give, or take away, legal status to a wide swath of people. To revoke it, the Department of Homeland Security argued that conditions have improved enough in Venezuela for immigrants to go back.

“I am, respectfully but in a very serious way, completely not in agreement with that, with them saying that’s the reason,” Diaz-Balart told POLITICO. “It’s the same dictatorship.”

The decision to rescind TPS is a marked shift in policy concerning Venezuelan immigrants compared to the first Trump administration. On the last day of his first term, Trump granted Venezuelans protection from deportation through the Deferred Enforced Departure program. It was a long-awaited move that Miami Republicans had pushed for.

But Trump also pledged to get rid of TPS during his 2024 campaign, repeatedly stating the executive action has been abused and overused. (Former President Joe Biden extended the protection to Venezuelans in 2023.)

So the move by DHS is no surprise for Diaz-Balart, Salazar and Gimenez. Trump is sticking to his promises, they said.

“I understand that he ran on, and he won, saying he was going to reverse all of the disasters Biden caused on the southern border,” Diaz-Balart said. But he said the cases of Venezuelans need to be “revised case-by-case in the most expedited way.”

Despite South Florida Republicans’ resistance, the Trump administration has been targeting Venezuelans since Trump took office.

The Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has made headlines and become a focus of Trump’s mass deportation campaign, with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem calling the gang “dirtbags” on Fox News. Noem justified her decision to not extend TPS to Venezelans by saying they would “stay here and violate our laws for another 18 months.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to request for comment.

But the lawmakers stress that most of the Venezuelans that they represent are not the criminals making headlines.

“Deport criminals, deport those that have deportation orders. But that's not the majority of Venezuelans that I know,” Gimenez said.

Venezuelan voters in Florida have become critical to Trump’s Latino base, who turned out for his town halls and campaign stops in Miami last year. Venezuelans are thefastest growing Latino group in the U.S., and they number in the hundreds of thousands in South Florida. In the majority Venezuelan enclave of Doral, known to locals as “Doralzuela,” Trump won upwards of 60 percent of the vote.

And many of these Venezuelans have family members or friends who have TPS.

“That is the message that we're delivering to the administration: that no, this is too broad a stroke,” Gimenez said.

Venezuelan Republicans in South Florida aren’t happy with the president, either. Gustavo Garagorry, head of the Venezuelan American Republican Club of Miami-Dade and an ardent supporter of Trump since 2015, said a lot of people are extremely worried, including him.

“I’m really embarrassed by what’s happening to Venezuelans, that’s my community that’s being affected,” he said. “More than one is on the verge of a heart attack over this.”

Jorge Galicia, a TPS recipient who identifies as a Republican, said that Trump’s decision is disappointing, but he has faith in the Miami Republicans.

“I understand that there is a crime problem here in the United States as a result of the Tren de Aragua gang,” he said. “Donald Trump’s government has to understand that even though this gang is a problem, not all Venezuelans are part of the gang, it’s a tiny minority that are involved.”

Venezuelan Republican politicians in Miami have pushed Trump to reconsider TPS, including the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners and the Doral City Council.

Councilman Rafael Pineyro, the only Venezuelan American who sits in Doral’s city council, introduced a resolution on TPS not as a means to confront Trump, but to show “what the real Venezuelan community is.”

Salazar has introduced several pieces of legislation to get some Venezuelans currently on TPS permanent legal status, including preparing to reintroduce the Dignity Act, her 2023 legislation that pairs enhanced border security with permanent residency, her office told POLITICO.

But time is running short: Unless thousands of Venezuelan TPS holders can successfully apply for another visa by April, they will lose work authorizations and risk deportation.

Although the Miami Republicans don’t agree with the reasoning to shut down TPS, they’re confident that Trump will get the message and pull through.

“Everything is on track,” Salazar said, adding that she’s working to sway Noem as well. “He’s done more in 36 days than the other guy in three years.”

And for the Venezuelan Republicans on the line, Salazar offered an optimistic note for those whose status expires in April.

“Do not be scared yet, because chances are we’re going to be able to find a solution,” Salazar said.

Ali Bianco reported from Miami and Washington. Isa Domínguez reported from Tallahassee, Florida.