US offers temporary protected status to thousands of Venezuelans | Al Jazeera

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

“The living conditions in Venezuela reveal a country in turmoil, unable to protect its own citizens,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.

“It is in times of extraordinary and temporary circumstances like these that the United States steps forward to support eligible Venezuelan nationals already present here.”

The move fulfils a promise that President Joe Biden made during the 2020 election campaign to give shelter to Venezuelans who left their homeland amid an economic collapse, humanitarian crisis and political turmoil under President Nicolas Maduro.

Approximately 5.4 million Venezuelans have emigrated in recent years due to the crisis, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.