Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
As bill stalls, Soto and Rubio look for ways to protect Venezuelans
Frustration is starting to grow among Venezuelans in Florida over the White House and Republican Senate’s lack of any action on any protections to those fleeing the Maduro regime.
Now, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is looking at other ways to protect Venezuelans without the need for congressional approval, including whether the Trump administration should simply “defer” any deportations under a power last used for Liberians 12 years ago.
With Venezuelan refugees in legal limbo, Democratic U.S. Rep. Darren Soto of Kissimmee wants the Senate to take a vote and not wait for the White House. He also is urging U.S. Sen. Rick Scott to move beyond supporting Rubio’s bill to co-sponsoring it.
Soto’s bill to grant Venezuelans temporary protected status, or TPS, passed the House last month by a vote of 272-158 with 39 Republicans voting in favor — including co-sponsor Mario Díaz-Balart, a Miami Republican. But a Senate Republican, Mike Lee of Utah, blocked a quick vote on a bill in that chamber before the summer recess.
Lee had said fast-tracking the bill wouldn’t give Republicans time to fully consider it and make changes, he told NBC News.
The Trump administration could also unilaterally carry out protections for Venezuelans. But in Miami in June, Vice President Mike Pence would only say “we’ve had discussions” about it.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Orlando Sentinel in July, “We’re looking at it … I’m hopeful that we’ll have a decision and a resolution on that in the not too distant future.”
“Our preference is for the bill we filed,” Soto told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday regarding the Senate bill. “But like many things, it could go to conference, and we can work things out. But it’s incumbent on the Senate to at least pass their version.”
In February, Scott held off on fully supporting protections for Venezuelans unless it was part of a larger border security deal, spokeswoman Sarah Schwirian had said at the time.
But that a border bill was passed and signed into law in June — without any such protections. Scott has now “called on the administration to immediately extend TPS … and is disappointed that the administration has so far declined to act,” Schwirian said.
The crisis in Venezuela has been going on for months, with food shortages and a 1.3 million percent annual inflation rate due to price controls. That has left as many as a third of Venezuelans in the once oil-rich nation eating just one meal a day, according to a recent study.
The issue was seen as potential wedge issue for Republicans to split off a key Hispanic constituency from Democrats, with the Trump administration using forceful language to condemn the country’s disputed president, Nicolas Maduro, and threatening possible armed intervention.
The Orlando group Casa de Venezuela estimated earlier this year that Central Florida now had 140,000 Venezuelan residents, about 38,000 of which are U.S. citizens and could vote.
But Samuel Vilchez Santiago, a Princeton student and Venezuelan activist from Orlando, said the community “was starting to realize the Republicans are using this for political gain.”
“At the end of the day, what matters to Venezuelans is not ideology or party, it’s solutions,” Santiago said. “To me, it demonstrates a lack of concern for our community and that they never really cared about us. With the exception of Rubio and Scott [in the Senate], but even though they do support it, it’s up to them to demonstrate leadership.”
Rubio said in July he was “making progress” with the White House for a way to provide temporary status and work permits for Venezuelans.
But he also said there could be another method, Deferred Enforced Departure, or DED. It isn’t an official legal status, like TPS, but it would allow Venezuelans to legally work and prevent them from being deported.
The most recent group to be granted such deferrals from deportation were Liberians in 2007. They had protected status due to unrest in their country, but it expired and then-President Bush granted them an 18-month reprieve.
Soto said he was surprised by the partisan resistance to his bill, despite DíazBalart being a co-sponsor. It got through the House Judiciary Committee on party lines, with no Republicans on the committee supporting it, and had to jump through more hoops to come to the floor as the last bill before the month-long recess.
The bill did get support from Florida Republicans including U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Augustine, Ross Spano, R-Dover, and Brian Mast, R-Hutchinson Island. Others, including Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, and Dan Webster, R-Clermont, voted against it.