[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 62 (Wednesday, April 10, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2357-S2358]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Venezuela

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last year I made my first trip to 
Venezuela just 1 month before a Presidential election that by all 
accounts was about to be rigged by the incumbent, Maduro. His criminal 
regime was increasingly isolated by its neighbors in the world.
  The Venezuelan people are suffering horribly--malnutrition, 
hyperinflation, levels of disease seen only in war zones around the 
world. As a result, 3 million Venezuelans have fled the country.
  Neighbors in Colombia and Ecuador showed and continue to show 
incredible compassion to the hundreds of thousands of desperate 
Venezuelans who are pouring across their borders. In fact, my staff was 
just in Cucuta, Colombia, on the Venezuelan border, and my staff saw 
firsthand the humanity and patience of the Colombian people helping 
their Venezuelan brothers and sisters showing up desperate for food and 
safety, all amid the stark cruelty of barricaded bridges deliberately 
blocking aid trucks.
  I might just add parenthetically--what a sharp contrast: the 
suffering in Venezuela and the people in Colombia, their neighbors who 
are trying to help, and what we are doing on our southern border when 
it comes to those who are suffering in Honduras and El Salvador and 
Guatemala. What a contrast.
  During my visit to Venezuela last year, I told Maduro that if he went 
ahead with his stolen election, he would find himself isolated in the 
eyes of the world, and the Venezuelan people would suffer even greater 
hardship. I told him that in Washington both political parties don't 
agree on much, but they do on Venezuela.
  Tragically, he ignored me and proceeded with this discredited 
election.
  As a result, when the region's governments on both the left and the 
right decided to recognize the Venezuelan National Assembly President 
Juan Guaido as the country's interim President, as provided for under 
the country's Constitution, I promptly agreed. In fact, I called Guaido 
immediately, spoke to him personally, and came to the floor of the 
Senate to offer my support for his ascendency as the leader of 
Venezuela.
  I had met him in Caracas last year at a dinner that was kind of a 
secret dinner since he was in the opposition, and I remember at that 
dinner that five members of the National Assembly said: If you come 
back here in 2019 and look for the five of us, two of us will be 
exiled, two will be in prison, and one will disappear. That is what 
happened in Venezuela.
  The courage they showed at that meeting and afterward should not be 
ignored by the American people.
  As President Trump made his case that the world needed to act in 
Venezuela, in part because of the horrible situation and danger the 
Venezuelan people found themselves in, I joined in

[[Page S2358]]

bipartisan agreement. The danger and fear are well-placed and well-
documented--armed vigilante groups, some in motorcycle gangs, that 
harass and beat innocent civilians; extended power outages, leaving 
already desperate medical care even more perilous; and arbitrary arrest 
and torture for those peacefully demonstrating against the Maduro 
regime.
  Just the other week, interim President Guaido's Chief of Staff, 
Roberto Morrero, was arrested by the Maduro regime, and it is feared 
that he is enduring torture at the present time.
  Judge Maria Afiuni, already cruelly jailed at a previous time and 
assaulted for making a judicial ruling against the Chavez regime, has 
now found herself facing another 5-year sentence under the Maduro 
regime.
  Five dual U.S.-Venezuelan citizens and a U.S. permanent resident who 
are CITGO employees have been cruelly held hostage in a basement prison 
for more than a year after being tricked into going to Venezuela for a 
business meeting.
  So amid the administration's accurate description of the misery and 
the danger that Venezuelans face, this administration still refuses to 
grant to the estimated 72,000 Venezuelans on visas in the United 
States--some of them students in my home State of Illinois--temporary 
protected status. This would be an obviously humanitarian move that 
would allow them to stay here until Venezuela is safe and stabilized.
  In Illinois, where many Venezuelans are studying in our colleges and 
universities, I have heard repeatedly of their desperation. Their visas 
are about to expire, and unless the President--and he has the power to 
do it--extends their protected status in this country, they will be 
forced to go back to Venezuela, a country our government warns people 
to stay away from.
  I held a townhall meeting in Illinois with my Venezuelan friends. 
They are heartbroken and worried about their families who are still in 
Venezuela to this day, and they worry about the danger and violence 
they are going to face. Is it any wonder, then, that many of them who 
are students or visitors here want to stay in the safety of the United 
States until this stabilizes?
  I would say to the President: I know your opinion of immigrants, and 
I know your opinion of refugees, but don't give us a speech one day 
telling us how dangerous it is in Venezuela and then the next day 
refuse to allow these people who are here to stay safely.
  Temporary protected status is not permanent. It is a short-term 
humanitarian measure. We ought to do it.
  This temporary protected status can be granted to nationals of 
another country who are in the United States if returning to their 
country would pose a serious threat to their personal safety.
  Do you know what the official line of the Trump administration is 
about Americans who want to visit Venezuela now? Let me read it to you. 
Here is what the State Department says:

       Do not travel to Venezuela due to crime, civil unrest, poor 
     health infrastructure, and arbitrary arrest and detention of 
     U.S. citizens. . . . Violent crime, such as homicide, armed 
     robbery, kidnapping, and carjacking is common. . . . There 
     are shortages of food, electricity, water, medicine, and 
     medical supplies through much of Venezuela.

  That is the official line of our government, warning people not to go 
to Venezuela. Yet even weeks after Senator Rubio and I have requested 
it, the administration still refuses to give the Venezuelans in the 
United States protected status so that they are not forced to face the 
same thing.
  Recent power outages have left the country even more desperate for 
basic water. Look at this photograph here. This shows people collecting 
water falling from a leaky pipeline along the banks of a river in 
Caracas. That is the desperation these people face.
  How can we force people to return to Venezuela when our own State 
Department says it is too dangerous to travel there?
  In fact, last month Senators Rubio, Menendez, and I--and 21 other 
Senate Democrats--sent a bipartisan letter to President Trump, urging 
him to take the obvious step that would match his rhetoric on 
Venezuela.
  I have also raised this directly with Vice President Pence and 
National Security Advisor Bolton.
  Let me again urge here on the Senate floor that President Trump take 
action to grant TPS status to the Venezuelans in the United States. 
This would be a concrete measure that President Trump could take this 
afternoon with the stroke of a pen to protect tens of thousands of 
innocent people.
  At a time when some have questioned America's real intentions toward 
Venezuela, this action by President Trump of granting TPS status to 
Venezuelan visitors in the United States would demonstrate that our 
true focus is on the safety and well-being of these innocent people.
  This is not only the right thing to do, but it would fully align the 
President with his speeches.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.