WASHINGTON — U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz Balart and Debbie Wasserman Schultz both have Venezuelan-American constituents in South Florida, but they disagree on President Donald Trump’s new approach to Venezuela.
Diaz Balart, a Republican who represents a large portion of Doral in Miami-Dade County, and Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat who represents Weston, disagree on Trump’s domestic and international policies impacting Venezuelans.
“How he deals with these terrorist threats, these terrorists, I wholeheartedly support,” Diaz Balart said about Trump’s February terror designation covering the Tren De Aragua, a transnational gang that started in a Venezuelan jail, and El Cartel De Los Soles, a narcotrafficking organization with links to the Venezuelan military.
As the U.S. maritime military presence increased near Venezuela, the attorneys for advocacy organizations who were fighting to keep the Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan migrants in the U.S. marked a victory on Friday.
A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge panel upheld U.S. District Judge Edward’s March ruling that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem did not have the authority to end the TPS that has allowed Venezuelan migrants to live and work legally in the U.S.
Wasserman Schultz has opposed cases of mistreatment of migrants and violations of due process. Migrant advocates have reported how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have detained cooperative asylum seekers and misidentified migrants as terrorists.
The Trump administration has been sending Tren De Aragua suspects to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, in El Salvador. Democrats have been critical of the new approach to TPS, which covered about 600,000 Venezuelan migrants.
TPS expired for about 350,000 Venezuelan migrants in April, and it is set to expire for the other 250,000 on Sept. 10. Wasserman Schultz said the Trump administration has to focus on cutting sources of revenue for the corrupt in Venezuela.
Wasserman Schultz opposed the end of TPS and the Trump administration’s decision to issue a restricted license in July that allows the Texas-based Chevron Corporation to produce and export Venezuelan crude oil.
“I would like to see the revocation of these oil lease sales because it’s the money that is flowing to him that is keeping him in power,” Wasserman Schultz said about Nicolás Maduro, who has been in power since 2013 as Hugo Chávez’s successor and controls Venezuela’s state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA.
Maduro, who has long speculated about the threat of a U.S. invasion in Venezuela, celebrated Chevron’s presence. Most recently, he talked on television about Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a former leftist guerrilla member, and their Russia-China allies standing with the Venezuelan military.
“No one touches this land,” Maduro said during a televised statement, adding that the U.S. case against him for drug trafficking was bizarre and Venezuelans needed to volunteer to join his militia in case of a U.S. attack.
The U.S. has a $50 million reward for Maduro over his alleged leadership of the cartel named after the sun-shaped insignias that Venezuelan generals wear. The Trump administration has been promoting stronger partnerships between the Justice Department and the Department of Defense on a new approach to the war on drugs.
While Colombians continue to be the top producers of cocaine, the DEA has identified Venezuelans and Mexicans as the traffickers who ensure its flow to the U.S. And, while the Chinese are the top producers of fentanyl, the DEA has identified Mexicans as the top traffickers of new synthetics such as Tusi, or pink cocaine.
During a news conference, Adm. Daryl Caudle, the Navy’s new chief of naval operations, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Trump are calling the shots on deployments near Venezuela. State Secretary Marco Rubio announced he will be visiting Mexico and Ecuador in September to take “swift and decisive action to dismantle cartels.”
Milberg contributed to this report from Pembroke Park, and Torres contributed to this report from Miami.
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