The Hill put out an opinion article about how the U.S. has an obligation to take in migrants from Venezuela. It was written by Democrat U.S. House representative Adriano Espaillat. We must preserve the American dream for Venezuelans Opinion, Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), The Hill, September 20, 2023 Let me copy some excerpts: " We must preserve the American dream for Venezuelans As a nation founded by immigrants seeking freedom from oppression, the United States of America bears an important and uniquely inherent responsibility to help immigrants obtain refuge from dire situations across the globe. This is especially true for the people of Venezuela, where, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency, the Venezuelan exodus of the past few years represents a quarter of Venezuela's entire population. This constitutes the world’s second-largest refugee crisis, and it has led many Venezuelans to search for refuge here in the United States. Several prominent cities throughout the U.S. have received this ongoing migration flow from the region. In my home city of New York, we have welcomed over 110,000 new immigrants since the Spring of 2022, and roughly 41 percent of these new arrivals are of Venezuelan descent." He goes on in the article to argue that the New York needs lots of funding from the federal government to help pay for these migrants and that the migrants should automatically get permits to work as soon as they arrive, instead of having to wait 6 months like current federal law requires. "Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a program that allows all immigrants from specific countries, as designated by the DHS, who are experiencing armed conflict or other extraordinary circumstances to receive temporary protection from deportation in the United States." So he wants the Biden Administration to use its executive power to treat all the migrants fleeing Venezuela as if they were special refugees fleeing political persecution. "As Americans, our obligation to these migrants and their families also goes beyond mere financial considerations--it is moral as well, and redesignating Venezuelan migrants for TPS is simply the right thing to do. The last couple of years has seen hundreds of thousands Venezuelan migrants--often families with children--cross rivers, scale mountains, and traverse the dangerous "Darien Gap" in Panama to reach safety in the U.S. To treat these migrants, who have traveled thousands of miles to live and work here, with anything other than the utmost compassion would be to disrespect the American dream. Allowing newly arrived Venezuelan migrants the ability to work, support their families, and live without fear of deportation via a TPS redesignation is an easy way for the DHS to help cities better address the current influx of migrants and help us remember who we are as Americans. Venezuelan families just want to put a roof over their heads and live safely. Is that too much to ask?" I find it highly ironic that people in the Left would be telling the U.S. they have an obligation to take in migrants, when what those migrants are fleeing from are disastrous political Left Socialist policies, which have ruined the economy of that country. Does this Left-leaning Democrat mean that, "to preserve the American dream for Venezuelans", Americans should make sure the U.S. never falls into totalitarian Socialism, like Venezuela has? Immigrants keep coming from other impoverished and troubled parts of the world, but how long until all those immigrants make the U.S. become just like all those other troubled countries the immigrants originally fled from in the first place? several related older threads: Maduro disarmed civilians in Venezuela, now he wants to arm his supporters (posted in Gun Control section, April 22, 2018 ) Typical Leftist tactics of arresting people over internet posts: illegal to make Twitter post that could cause run on banks in Venezuela and Guatemala (posted in Central & South America section, May 16, 2017 ) Remember all those left-wing pundits who drooled over Venezuela? (posted by Wehrwolfen in Political Opinions & Beliefs, August 3, 2017 ) Socialist government of Venezuela completely banned private gun ownership (posted by KJohnson in Current Events section, March 23, 2018 ) Venezuela crisis: UN says security forces killed hundreds (posted by Brewskier in Current Events, June 24, 2018 ) Massive protests in Venezuela Is this the end for Venezuela Socialism? Will increasing amounts of diversity really favor Progressive's goals in the long term? (posted by kazenatsu in Political Opinions & Beliefs, January 5, 2022 ) US turning into Venezuela (posted by kazenatsu in Economics & Trade, May 18, 2022 )
So what is the " armed conflict or other extraordinary circumstances" that makes Venezuelan illegals eligible?
To be fair, the economic disaster that the government has inflicted upon the country is almost worse than an armed conflict. But that's exactly the point. Venezuela had the same type of economic policies that the American Left wants (albeit perhaps just a little bit more extreme, and idiotically thought out, but then again I doubt that the American Left would have been any different if they had been put in charge of Venezuela's economy and government policy). Venezuela is a disaster, and the same people on the Left in America don't seem to want to recognize it and just seem to want to move the people from a place that has their Leftist policies to another place that has much less of it. It kind of reminds you of all the people who have been pouring out of New York state and California, looking for greener pastures in other more conservative states, but taking their same political beliefs with them and refusing to see any connection. They want to terraform their new homes into the same image of the places they left (and are having effects on state politics).
I do feel sorry for folks suffering needlessly under communism, but with Venezuela, they voted for it. They deserve to stew in that misery just as much as New Yorkers who voted for Biden's open borders deserve all the illegals they are getting.
