DHS Says Venezuela Is Safe for Migrants To 'Go Home' to After Maduro's Capture. These Venezuelans Disagree.
Venezuelan nationals interviewed by Reason say they don’t feel safe returning to the country while Maduro’s regime is still in power. “It’s like taking the hood off, but the engine is still running.”
In the day following the capture of Venezuelan Dictator Nicolás Maduro, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem proclaimed that "Venezuela today is more free than it was yesterday." As a result, Noem said she would not reinstate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans, which the DHS rescinded in 2025.
Under the TPS program, foreign nationals from specified countries experiencing a crisis are protected from deportation and given work authorization. DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News that Venezuelans who received TPS under the Biden administration "can now go home with hope for their country," and asserted that Venezuela will now have "peace, prosperity, and stability."
Yet for many Venezuelan nationals living in the United States, the prospect of going home is not as rosy as Noem and McLaughlin make it seem.
"Venezuelans are happy, but they're not celebrating," Ana María Diez tells Reason. Diez is the cofounder and president of Coalición por Venezuela, a Venezuelan civil rights network. She fled to Spain in 2022 after being targeted by the Maduro regime for her advocacy. While removing Maduro from power was a huge step for Venezuelans who had given up on the idea of justice, it's too early to say the country is on a path to prosperity, according to Diez.
After President Donald Trump announced his intention of working with Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela's former vice president and now acting dictator with a history of human rights abuses of her own, Diez expressed skepticism that much had changed in her home country. Diez compared the transition of power to a mere "rebrand" of a deeply oppressive regime. Although some political prisoners were freed on Thursday in a gesture of goodwill to the U.S., Diez says there is still a lot of fear amongst Venezuelans. "El Helicoide," Venezuela's largest torture center, formerly overseen by Rodríguez herself as head of the nation's national intelligence agency, and other torture centers are still operational. Meanwhile, laws remain in place that could make speaking out against the country's government a crime.
Shortly after Rodríguez took power this week, Venezuelan police were ordered to "immediately begin the national search and capture of everyone involved in the promotion or support for the armed attack by the United States," according to Reuters. "Right now, people are being detained and accused of treason for simply shouting 'freedom,'" says Diez.
"Venezuela has a history of using violence and guns against the people," Josué Sánchez, a Venezuelan national currently living in Florida, tells Reason. "And right now the military is on high alert." Sánchez came to the U.S. in 2020, received TPS in 2021, and currently has an open asylum case. Although Sánchez is "happy" the U.S. removed Maduro from power, he says it's only the "first step in a long process to clean the country" of corruption. "It's like taking the hood off, but the engine is still running."
Sánchez emphasized the instability that Maduro's ouster has created in Venezuela. "They've closed the Colombian border," said Sánchez, "it's pretty much a war zone right now."
"If the situation gets better, people will return, but now is not the time," he added.
Jesús Noria, another Venezuelan national living in Florida with an open asylum case, echoes Sánchez's concerns. "The situation is tense in Venezuela right now. People won't post about it because the government is watching," he says. "Guerrillas are out…blocking the streets and asking for papers, so people are staying silent." On Tuesday, The New York Post reported that armed gangs in Caracas, Venezuela's capital, were hunting down supporters of Maduro's capture and demanding to search people's phones and cars. Thousands of Venezuelans have already fled the ongoing guerrilla offensive, reports The Guardian.
"There's a lot of tension, and people are asking what's going to happen next," Noria says.
Noria came to the U.S. under TPS in 2023 after being captured and tortured by the Venezuelan army and is currently waiting on the outcome of his pending asylum case. He says he doesn't feel safe returning to Venezuela during what he described as the "power struggle" likely taking place. "The Chavismo has a lot of concentrated power, and they're ready to defend it."
Sánchez and Noria, both former TPS holders, feel strongly that the DHS should reinstate TPS protections for Venezuelans. Noria, who was in favor of Trump's immigration crackdown when it focused on deporting criminals, doesn't think the country is made safer by targeting working immigrants. Giving TPS to Venezuelans who wish to continue working in the U.S. rather than return to an unstable country would enable them to "live their lives peacefully," he says.
Sánchez, who has debated whether staying in the U.S. is the right thing to do, tells Reason that "every day is a gamble without TPS, but the alternatives are worse." Ultimately, the country's ongoing economic crisis and fears that authorities will extort him have convinced Sánchez to stay in the United States. "Venezuelans want freedom and to return to a safe, uncorrupt government," according to Sánchez.
"Removing Maduro was only a first step. It's not enough to secure prosperity and peace," Sánchez says, arguing that TPS should be given to Venezuelans as his home country navigates the current political instability. "I deserve to have a life in the time being."
