A month after two devastating earthquakes decimated Northern Venezuela, Venezuelan immigrants with expired Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, and immigrant advocates are demanding the Trump administration reinstate them to avoid deportation.
At a press conference in Doral, the National TPS Alliance, a grassroots group of TPS holders, joined with immigrant advocates and local union organizers said they will send the Administration a petition signed by 133,000 people requesting Venezuelan immigrants receive an extension of TPS extension and the chance to become U.S. citizens.
TPS was created by Congress in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife. The Trump administration has ended TPS for about 1 million people from 13 countries, including about 650,000 from Venezuela.
The plea from Venezuelan TPS holders and their supporters became more urgent after twin earthquakes — of 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude — struck Venezuela on June 24. More than 5,000 people have died and tens of thousands have been left injured, according to Venezuelan officials. A month after the tragedy, thousands more people are still unaccounted for.
" To the United States government we say: this is not the moment to deport, it's the moment to protect," said National TPS Alliance national coordinator Arnoldo Diaz. "The redesignation of TPS for Venezuela is not a favor, but a humanitarian obligation."
Angel Alvarez, an immigration attorney and Venezuelan national, argues that TPS exists for "precisely this kind of emergency."
READ MORE: Earthquake aid keeps flowing from Florida to Venezuela, as volunteers unite to help recovery
The National TPS Alliance leaders said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, will deliver the petition to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin.
Earlier this week, Wasserman Schultz and Republican U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, of Miami, spearheaded a discharge petition for the American Dream and Promise Act alongside other House members to open more pathways for TPS holders to gain permanent citizenship. Members of the Alliance implored Floridians to call their representatives to support the bill.
"1.3 million people are in agony day to day over the possible separation of their families. With this petition, we are saying that our lives are not temporary," said Diaz.
Sedna Mercado, a 22-year-old Venezuelan national and TPS holder living in Orlando, shared the story of her journey from Venezuela as a young teen and of her family walking across the Colombian border to eventually make their way to the U.S. She said she applied for and was granted TPS, which has allowed her to graduate high school and attend college.
" My first proof of residency here in the United States was my library card, and that allowed me to finally be able to study. TPS was a program that allowed me to have a permanent status to go to college," said Mercado. "I am a political science student, and I know that if I were to return to my country, I would face political persecution for my views."
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