Washington – Maria Eugenia Torres Ramirez never tried to live illegally in the United States. As a political activist from Venezuela, which President Nicolas Maduro violates violently, she turned to border agents in Del Rio, Texas, and asked for asylum in 2021.
The 37 -year -old Torres Ramirez fled with her two small children Venezuela after the federal police fired shots in front of their restaurant and began to demand them to tell them where they could find them.
Torres Ramirez, who now lives in Los Angeles, has strengthened her legal armor by preserving a temporary protected status or TPS, whereby people who make it possible to live in their home countries in the US Armaments received that made it possible to have people, and people with exceptional conditions in their home countries are exposed to them, if they refused asylum, the more they would still have a work permit and be shielded before deportation.
That was until the Trump government ended TPS for many Venezuelans.
“It was a lot of fear,” she said. “If you refuse the asylum, I would have even more uncertainty. The moment he eliminates legal protection, we are illegal. ”
Central to President Trump's re -election became hard in the illegal immigration. But Trump also lowered paths for the legal immigration that offered hundreds of thousands of people who fled war and other political or humanitarian crises.
The Trump administration has closed a telephone application used by migrants to legally enter the USA at the southern border. Refugee recordings were suspended. Humanitarian programs that enabled Afghans, Ukrainians, Venezoles and others to fly to the USA were stopped. The broad use of TPS, which applies to people from 17 countries, is expected that the current names will expire.
During his first presidency, Trump moved TPS for 95% of people who had it, including those of El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Sudan, Nepal and Honduras. These dismissals were stalled in court, and when President Biden took office, he moved up the course and expanded the protection to protect people from additional countries such as Venezuela, Ukraine, Ethiopia and Burma. Biden extended most of these protective measures for a further 18 months – the legally permissible maximum – shortly before the office.
The administration already raised the expansion of bidges and ended TPS for 350,000 Venezuelans such as Torres Ramirez, who arrived in 2023 or earlier. Your protection ends on April 7th. Another 250,000 Venezuelans remain protected by September.
Trump card ordered A review of all TPS names and right -wing experts states that the same reasons for the termination of Venezuela could be applied to another benefactor.
Republicans, including Trump, saw the immigration programs of Biden as a path sanctioned by the government to facilitate illegal immigration.
“You have just created several different buckets and called legal ways that you are not,” said Trump's “Grenzzar” Tom Homan the night after the inauguration in Fox News. “There is the same population of illegal foreigners across the border.”
The bidges administration monitored an unprecedented expansion of the temporary immigration protection. After illegal border crossings reached historical heights in 2023, the administration used these discretionary programs to prevent migrants from further overwhelming the border between the USA and Mexico.
Trump instructed the officials to no longer enable migrants in the United States through a process called probation, which is used for humanitarian or public interests. Have democratic and republican administration used the authority for decadesincluding for 30,000 Hungary after the 1956 uprising against the Soviets and more than 330,000 Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotier between 1975 and 1980 due to the Vietnam War.
Trump's first-day executive order, “Protection of the American people from invasion”, “ Points out his administration to ensure that probation is “only exercised on a case -by -case basis”.
Minutes after Trump had sworn in, his administration closed CBP One, a mobile app under which migrants in Mexico could apply for an appointment with the border authorities in official entry ports. Since January 2023, almost 1 million people with two -year work permits have entered the country.
Many of those who arrived through CBP applied for asylum. Migrants have up to a year to submit an application. But those who do not yet have to apply could become targets for deportation.
Immigration agents are now authorized to refer probation status and to remove anyone who has been in the USA for less than two years. After a memo on January 23rd Signed by Caleb Vitello, incumbent director of the US immigration and customs authority. The rapidly pursued deportation procedures for the immigration court, which can take years due to a strong deficit.
Trump stopped programs that made it possible for US citizens to sponsor people from Ukraine, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti financially. The migrants were able to buy commercial flights to the USA and work legally for two years. Around 240,000 Ukrainians and more than 530,000 from the other four countries came under these processes.
Pablo Alvarado, managing director of the Los Angeles Los Angeles National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said that the motivation to restrict immigration is not just about repairing the so -called broken immigration system. For them it is the fear of a non -white majority. “
Trump's commands also affect 76,000 Afghans, which were evacuated after the fall of Kabul in 2021. Although many asylum have received asylum, some could lose their legal status if the officials no longer extend the protection of the probation house.
“These probation programs work very much like a visa,” said Kendra Blandon, lawyer at the Amica Center for Migrant Rights in Washington. “They are people who have applied to enter the United States before they arrive. If you apply for a tourist visa, you have to prove that you have the money to be a tourist. The people in this probation program have proven that they have their own money and US citizens' sponsors. “
Perning to “the burden of newcomers”, Trump held the US refugee recording program for an indefinite period. Thousands of refugees agreed for the departure after showing that they fled before persecution due to their political beliefs, religion, gender or other factors. The review process can take about two years and include several interviews as well as security and health demonstrations.
Last financial year the United States relocated more than 100,000 refugees – the highest number In three decades.
The administration also instructed reorganization agencies, the use of federal funds for services such as the mediation of jobs and medical support for refugees who are already in the USA
Dalya Hussein, who works with Fresno immigrant and refugee ministries, necessary vaccinations for the school.
The company welcomed about 150 people in December and almost the same number in January, said Hussein, most of the Afghanistan and Syria.
But since Trump was suspended Refugee programThis work cut to a standstill. Families who were approved for resettlement in Fresno had to cancel their flights. Refugees who had recently arrived at Central Valley suddenly found themselves without the support of company.
“We couldn't serve them anymore,” said Hussein.
The population of immigrants without legal status achieved a new high of 13.7 million in mid -2023, as can be seen from the estimates published this month by the impartial migration policy institute. Immigration representatives say that the termination of TPS and other legal options for staying could have an unintentional influence on this number.
For example, if someone loses the protection of the TPS, but cannot leave the country or not, they will increase the ranks of the undocumented population.
Time's staff author Rebecca Plevin in Los Angeles contributed to this report.