MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling affecting Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans has sent shockwaves through South Florida’s immigrant communities and among business owners.
One of them is Antonio Lobo, who employs several TPS holders and now fears the economic fallout.
“I have a lot of people around me with the TPS, and they’re really in panic because they don’t know what to do,” said Lobo, president of KALO Corporation in Weston. “A lot of people depend on them — workers and family depend on them. We are people, good people. I know Venezuela people is good people. They should be looking at this on a case-by-case basis, only removing the bad actors, keeping the hard workers.”
The high court’s decision — which pertains to TPS for Venezuela — has placed many in legal limbo, including workers Lobo depends on to clean and renovate properties in Florida and Georgia.
“They are doing a really good job,” Lobo said. “The most people affected is my renovation or construction crew, because those people working together as a team, and everybody had the TPS. By the way, it’s not only right here in Florida. In Atlanta I have another building, another property, which is all those people that have TPS.”
The decision also impacts Lobo’s brother, a business owner with three employees — all TPS holders from Venezuela.
“He say, Antonio, I don’t know what I have to do,” Lobo said. “He call me Monday, the same day.”
Lobo told Local 10’s Christina Vazquez that his brother owns a painting company and has three employees with TPS.
Immigration attorney Alma Chacón said the ruling has broad implications beyond Venezuela, including for immigrants from Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba, who are part of the CHNV parole program, which the Trump Administration is attempting to dismantle.
“Very strong economic impact because we have people that is working in restaurants, in any type of business — all these immigrants are entrepreneurs. They have created their own business,” Chacón said.
She noted many TPS recipients originally entered the country legally.
“I have many clients that enter legally with visa — with tourist visa or F1 visa, that is a student visa — and they are, for the condition of being Venezuelan, they apply for the TPS,” she said. “So they believe safe and left the other status to expire, but they are not illegal. They entered legally to the country. It is not all the population that apply for a 2023 TPS who enter illegally, just some of them.”
Another looming concern: TPS recipients who entered the country through humanitarian parole processes are now in jeopardy as federal litigation unfolds.
“Yes, we have a lot of clients with TPS granted. Another concern is those who were authorized to enter the United States with parole — with parole processes,” Chacón said.
While the Supreme Court’s ruling did not address the merits of the case, Chacón said it has stoked fears.
“It’s good to know that this Supreme Court order is not on the merits of the case because many of them have the merits,” she said. “The condition of these countries are very, very, very dangerous in terms of dissenting or expressing a political opinion against the government.”
With uncertainty building among TPS holders from CHNV, Chacón urged immediate action.
“You have to act now — not only since the immigration standpoint, but also what will happen with your children, with your — all your assets that you have in the United States,” she said. “Take a step before deportation.”