'They used us:' Trump-backing Venezuelan immigrants now furious at deportations

Venezuelan expats who backed President Donald Trump in the 2024 election campaign are expressing fury that his administration has now revoked regulations protecting hundreds of thousands of them from deportation.

NPR reports that there is massive disillusionment in the Venezuelan immigrant community after the Trump administration revoked Temporary Protected Status from Venezuelan refugees who are currently residing legally in the United States.

Although the Trump administration has claimed that the program has been abused to bring criminals into the United States, many in the community say the administration is simply lying.

Adelys Ferro, the director of the Venezuelan American Caucus, tells NPR that many of her fellow Venezuelan immigrants are feeling "beyond betrayed" by the move.

"They used us," she said. "During the campaign, the elected officials from the Republican Party, they actually told us that he was not going to touch the documented people. They said, 'No, it is with undocumented people.'"

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Carlos Pereira, a Venezuelan-American living in Doral, Florida, told NPR that the move to revoke TPS is sending people into a panic.

"They're scared," he explained, while adding that it would be a "tragedy" to remove people's protected status and send them back to a country they once fled.

Pereira also slammed Republican lawmakers who normally stand up against the Venezuelan government for going silent while Trump engages in negotiations with leader Nicholas Maduro.

"They always speak very hard against the Maduro regime. Now because Papi Trump is negotiating with Maduro, they close their mouth?"