Washington, D.C. – Today, Democrats in the Senate, led by Democratic Leader Senator Chuck Schumer (New York), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator Bob Menendez (New Jersey), and Senator Dick Durbin (Illinois), presented a unanimous consent request on H.R. 49, the Venezuela TPS Act of 2019 that would have granted Venezuelans Temporary Protected Status (TPS), but the request was blocked by Republican senators.
H.R. 49 would have provided work permits and protection from deportation for approximately 200,000 Venezuelan immigrants currently in the United States. Latino Victory Fund president and CEO Nathalie Rayes issued the following statement:
“It’s an outrage that Republicans in the Senate refuse to support the Venezuelan community in their time of need. Our country has a moral obligation to protect Venezuelan nationals who came to the United States to escape the economic and humanitarian crises under Maduro’s oppressive regime. Providing TPS would grant 200,000 Venezuelans an opportunity to live a life of stability and free from the fear of deportation. That won’t happen anytime soon because Republicans keep siding with Trump by taking hard-line immigration stances that go against our nation’s humanitarian principles. There is one surefire way we can guarantee that TPS is extended for Venezuelans– we can hold Republicans and Trump accountable for their inaction and vote them out in November.”
