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- The Department of Homeland Security has extended temporary protected status for eligible Venezuelans and Salvadorans by 18 months.
- The extensions apply to around 600,000 Venezuelans and 232,000 Salvadorans nationwide.
- Some Venezuelans, in particular, had expressed concern about deportation prior to the announced extension.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Venezuelan and Salvadoran populations in Utah — at least a portion of them — can breathe a sigh of relief after last week's decision to extend the temporary protected status designations of the two nations.
Amid expected moves by President-elect Donald Trump to step up deportations when he takes office next week, many immigrants in the Venezuelan community, in particular, have worried about being forced back to the South American country.
"There is evidence of crimes against humanity (under President Nicolás Maduro) against those people who are not in favor of the government," said Carlos Trujillo, a South Jordan immigration attorney. Many Venezuelans are in the United States because they oppose the leader's socialist regime.
Friday's U.S. Department of Homeland Security announcement, however, extends the period eligible Venezuelans may keep temporary protected status and stay in the United States by 18 months to Oct. 2, 2026. They have to have arrived in the United States on or before July 31, 2023, among other requirements.
"Because conditions continue to be problematic in Venezuela, this TPS extension is not surprising," said Kendall Moriarty, a Salt Lake City immigration attorney.
A parallel announcement allows eligible Salvadorans to maintain temporary protected status for 18 more months, until Sept. 9, 2026. Eligible Salvadorans must have arrived on or before Feb. 13, 2001, in the wake of devastating earthquakes that year.
"For 18 months, they'll be OK. The concern is for 2026," Trujillo said, after the extensions expire, when Trump will be in office. Temporary protected status allows eligible recipients to lawfully remain and work in the United States.
The extensions apply to around 600,000 Venezuelans in the country — who account for the majority of temporary protected status recipients — 232,000 Salvadorans, and a smaller number of Ukrainians and Sudanese, also recipients of 18-month extensions. Utah is home to around 10,215 people with temporary protected status, according to a 2024 Congressional Research Service report, though Trujillo estimates the total is higher: 13,000 to 15,000 people.
The extension impacting eligible Venezuelans is significant in the context of the political upheaval and turmoil in the country. Immigrants returning to the country can be regarded as enemies of the Venezuelan state for having fled to the United States, Trujillo said, and face detention, torture and even death.
Some Venezuelans were "very, very scared," Trujillo said. "That's the honest truth."
Notwithstanding Friday's announcement, there are mixed sentiments in the Venezuelan community. Some had hoped U.S. officials would have also changed the date of eligibility, allowing more recent arrivals to apply for temporary protected status, Trujillo said. Whatever the case, Trump likely can't take any steps when he takes office to reverse last Friday's moves.
"There is no expectation whatsoever that the 18 months will be revoked or anything like that," the lawyer said.
Still, the president-elect has expressed a desire to end the temporary protected status program, Moriarty said, and she suspects he may move in that direction after he takes office.
The statute governing the program, though, "is set up in such a way that decisions regarding whether to extend or end TPS for a specific country are made in the period immediately before the designations are set to expire," she said. Moreover, the effort would likely go through the court system, she added, "Where the competing interests can be hashed out."
The Salvadoran people eligible for temporary protected status must have been here for nearly 24 years. Revoking the status, Trujillo said, could be disruptive to mixed-status families that could face separation. The first Trump administration pushed to revoke El Salvador's temporary protected status designation, he said, to no avail.
Salvadorans and others who have had temporary protected status "are well integrated into our communities. They contribute in many ways to the economy and our way of life," Moriarty said. "Removing protections could cause a ripple effect in the labor force and our society that would be detrimental to the well-being of Utah and the United States."
According to the Congressional Research Service, the largest populations of people with temporary protected status as of March last year were in Florida, Texas, New York and California. Next came 12 states with at least 10,000 recipients, including Utah.
Temporary protected status designations are meant for people from countries "experiencing armed conflict, natural disaster or other extraordinary circumstances that prevent their safe return," according to the research body. More than 15 nations have been granted the status.
The 18-month extension pertaining to Venezuela "is warranted based on the severe humanitarian emergency the country continues to face due to political and economic crises under the inhumane Maduro regime," reads Friday's announcement. "These conditions have contributed to high levels of crime and violence, impacting access to food, medicine, health care, water, electricity and fuel."
The extension pertaining to El Salvador stems from storms and heavy rainfall in 2023 and 2024 that have affected areas of the country impacted by the 2001 earthquakes that led to the initial temporary protected status designation.
