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Agustina Vergara Cid: Trump whitewashes the Maduro regime

February 8, 2025

Amid its crackdown on immigration, the Trump administration has decided to end the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) of about 600,000 Venezuelans. TPS is a special immigration protection that the U.S. government offers to people from certain countries who can’t safely return home due to, among other reasons, a dangerous political environment such as Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship. It provides legal status to its beneficiaries and puts them through thorough vetting procedures to ensure recipients don’t pose any sort of threat to the country.

But this move goes far beyond immigration policy, and it whitewashes Maduro’s socialist dictatorship.

The Biden administration had designated Venezuelans as eligible for TPS in 2021 based on the dire conditions created by Maduro’s dictatorship. That designation was later renewed, including by petition of then-Senator and now Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In 2022, Rubio wrote to then-Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas explaining the horrific conditions that Venezuelans were facing in their home country, and requesting that Mayorkas extend the protection for Venezuelans on U.S. soil. “Failure to do so would result in a very real death sentence for countless Venezuelans who have fled their country,” wrote Rubio.

At the time, Rubio echoed Donald Trump’s earlier words about the brutality of Maduro’s government and the appropriateness of protecting Venezuelans on U.S. soil. On Jan. 19, 2021, Trump issued a memorandum ordering the deferral of removal actions against Venezuelans who were present in America, and ordered that work permits be issued to them. President Trump explained then that “through force and fraud, the Maduro regime is responsible for the worst humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere in recent memory” and that millions of Venezuelans had been forced to flee the regime.

Trump and Rubio were right back then: the Maduro regime is a brutal dictatorship that’s hostile to human life. But the recent actions of the administration point to a sudden change of heart.

In order to end TPS for a specific country, the Department of Homeland Security has to evaluate whether the conditions that triggered the TPS designation have ceased. In the case of Venezuela, that evaluation would entail verifying that the dictatorship is either over or that conditions have notably improved, enough to make it safe for TPS beneficiaries to return (note that exiles are, by definition, people who oppose the regime they’re fleeing).

In a notice published in the Federal Register on Feb. 5, the Department of Homeland Security formally terminated TPS for Venezuelans. It argued that with the help of the Department of State, it found that, while some of the conditions that led to the TPS designation of Venezuela “may continue,” “there are notable improvements in several areas such as the economy, public health, and crime that allow for these nationals to be safely returned to their home country.” (It then states that, even if they hadn’t improved, it’s not in the “national interest” to allow Venezuelans to remain in the U.S., conflating TPS holders with gang members.)

It bears repeating: the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Department of State, considers that the conditions under the Maduro socialist dictatorship have improved in the last few years, and has formally stated so.

Such conditions have certainly not improved. Even the UN, which is known for providing moral cover for authoritarians, calls the situation in Venezuela “one of the most acute human rights crises in recent history” in a 2024 report. The Department of State itself issued a travel advisory about Venezuela in September of last year, which reads: “Do not travel to Venezuela due to the high risk of wrongful detentions, terrorism, kidnapping, the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, poor health infrastructure.”

Let me remind you about some basic facts of the Maduro regime. Maduro has implemented a full-on dictatorship that has perpetuated him in power. As recently as last year, elections were held that “elected” Maduro for his third term. It’s widely known that the elections were plagued with fraud, and the U.S. doesn’t even recognize Maduro as the legitimate president.

Just as recently as January of this year, Maduro has shown the world his willingness to detain dissenters, with the apprehension of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. The Maduro regime has oppressed, harassed and even executed political dissenters. By ending TPS, the U.S. would likely send thousands of peaceful Venezuelans back to face such a fate.

Much more can be said about the brutality of Maduro’s regime, and the horrific conditions in which Venezuelans live and the lack of freedom cannot be overstated. But the administration seems to have forgotten about these facts, and it’s whitewashing Maduro’s regime by officially declaring there’s been an “improvement” that makes it safe enough to send many of his dissenters back to him—and by negotiating with Maduro on how to do so.

The whitewashing of the Maduro regime is not new. As I’ve written in this column before, the Biden administration did the same when it turned to Venezuela for oil in 2022. What I said then remains true now: America lacks a pro-American foreign policy that will forcefully condemn authoritarian regimes instead of propping them up in various ways.

Marco Rubio recently called the Maduro regime an “enemy of humanity.” However, the actions of the administration and what it’s officially stated regarding TPS points in a different direction. What it points to is yet another unprincipled foreign policy, one that is willing to whitewash and negotiate with brutal dictators. This approach to Venezuela (started by Biden in 2022) may be the beginning of an immoral resumption of relations with the regime.

Ending TPS for Venezuelans props up the Maduro regime, on top of putting at risk of deportation hundreds of thousands of peaceful, hard-working Venezuelans who might end up being sent back to the horror they escaped. Americans should be outraged at that injustice, and at what this says about the U.S.’s approach to the Maduro regime.

Agustina Vergara Cid is an associate fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute.

Orange County Register

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Agustina Vergara Cid: Trump whitewashes the Maduro regime

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