The Biden administration delivered a late Wednesday night news dump announcing the issuance of work permits to around 472,000 Venezuelan illegal immigrants.
That comes amidst a massive surge in crossings that has largely been blessed by the White House, with CBP agents not being allowed to do their jobs and even tearing down barricades set up by Texas authorities in some cases. Recent videos from Eagle Pass showed an endless stream of illegal immigrants marching across undeterred.
🚨: On the ground in Eagle Pass, TX and this large group of people, mostly from Venezuela, illegally crossed into the U.S. at 5:00 AM.
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) September 21, 2023
As they were making their way towards Border Patrol for processing, another large group in the hundreds was crossing the river. pic.twitter.com/gTgUxyDmIj
As Julio Rosas notes, most of those crossing are from Venezuela, and now, the incentive for them to come has just been ratcheted up even further. According to a new report, the Biden administration is going to give out work permits, representing de facto amnesty for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants.
The Biden administration on Wednesday announced that it will be offering hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants already in the U.S. – including those in the country illegally – work permits and protections from deportations, just as numbers are skyrocketing at the southern border.
Officials announced a move to redesignate Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status, which allows migrants to apply for deportation protections and work permits if they have arrived for a certain date.
The latest extension will see TPS extended for 18 months and applies to nationals who were in the country on or before July 31. Venezuela was last extended, but not re-designated, for TPS in 2022, meaning it was not open to new applicants. This redesignation will open it up to new applicants, and officials told reporters they estimate it will protect around 472,000 foreign nationals.
The move will undoubtedly operate as yet another incentive for people to travel to the Southern border and cross illegally. Temporary Protected Status is a program that is assessed every year by the U.S. government, meaning that Venezuelans will now need to ensure they enter the country illegally before the next renewal. In other words, this will accelerate the crisis, not dampen it.
TPS is typically reserved for extreme circumstances, whether that be war or genocide. While Venezuela is certainly going through an economic crisis at the hands of its communist leadership, there is little justification to include it under TPS.
So why was it? The likely answer is that New York City and other sanctuary cities have been demanding expedited work permits for the illegal immigrants that have been sent there.
However, it comes as the administration has faced fierce pressure from sanctuary jurisdictions like New York City, which have demanded more federal action to help them deal with the migrant crises they are facing – including expedited work permits. New York City has declared itself overwhelmed by the more than 110,000 migrants that have come to its city.
Again, when you start handing out work permits instead of deporting illegal immigrants in any serious numbers, all you do is encourage the masses to come. This border crisis is about to get a lot worse, which didn’t seem possible a few days ago given how bad it already was.
