To designate Venezuela under section 244 of the Immigration and Nationality Act to permit nationals of Venezuela to be eligible for temporary protected status under such section, and for other purposes.
Designate Venezuela under the Immigration and Nationality Act to make Venezuelan nationals eligible for Temporary Protected Status.
Occurrences
Evidence
The bill text introduced by Rep. Darren Soto sought to designate Venezuela under INA section 244 so Venezuelan nationals in the United States could qualify for TPS.
USCIS's Venezuela TPS page shows the country remained designated for TPS and reflects the 2025 extension/redesignation framework that kept some Venezuelan beneficiaries covered through October 2, 2026.
DHS published a Federal Register notice terminating the October 3, 2023 Venezuela TPS designation, showing a later reversal attempt and litigation risk after the original designation had been expanded.
AP reported that Judge Edward Chen said about 5,000 Venezuelans with TPS paperwork extended through October 2026 were not covered by the broader revocation, so they could remain in the U.S. while litigation continued.
Assessments
Soto made a serious legislative push in 2019 by introducing the Venezuela TPS Act to designate Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status, but his bill did not become law. Venezuela was later designated for TPS and that protection remained at least partly active into 2025-2026, so the promised policy outcome did occur. However, the available evidence attributes the actual designation and later extensions to executive branch action rather than to Soto securing enactment of his own measure. Under federal candidate-credit standards, that supports partial rather than full delivery: he materially advocated the policy, but unrelated federal officials ultimately implemented it in a later term.