[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 98 (Tuesday, June 6, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S1966]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Venezuela

  Mr. President, on another topic, last month, a few of my colleagues 
and I had a memorable meeting with the former interim President of 
Venezuela, Juan Guaido. After a heroic and determined effort to bring 
some semblance of democracy and stability to the once-proud nation of 
Venezuela, he and his young family fled in fear for their safety and 
future. He showed me the harrowing photos of his wife and two young 
daughters fleeing secretly over land and across a dangerous river into 
Colombia--a story that, sadly, isn't unique or even the worst I have 
heard.
  Under the current Maduro regime, Venezuela is a politically 
repressive failed state. I visited with this President in Caracas 
before the discredited 2018 election, and what I saw and what continues 
today is heartbreaking. There are people starving and fainting at work 
from malnutrition, hospitals without electricity and basic medicines, 
brutal political repression and torture, and staggering corruption and 
the dismantling of what is left of that country's democracy. It is not 
surprising, then, that over the last decade, more than 6 million 
Venezuelans have fled their country in despair and fear, traveling to 
neighboring nations and some onward to the United States.
  Yesterday, I went to the Piotrowski Park shelter in Chicago, and I 
met with a number of these Venezuelan immigrants, some of whom were 
bused into Chicago from Texas. It is not the first time I have sat down 
with these immigrants to hear their stories. The city of Chicago, like 
many other cities, is doing the best they can to provide good, humane 
care for these people and these families.
  I asked one woman about the journey she made. She sat right next to 
me with three little boys, the cutest kids you have ever seen--7 years 
old, 5 years old, and 3 years old--and she told me what it meant to 
take them through the jungles in Panama and realize that at any moment 
they could perish. That is how desperate she was for freedom, how 
desperate she was to get to the United States. Hers is not a unique 
story; it is a story repeated over and over.
  I want to especially thank Kate Maehr at the Greater Chicago Food 
Depository and the New Life Community Church, Matt DeMateo, for his 
leadership and helping this woman's desperate family and so many other 
migrants arriving in Chicago.
  Previously, I, along with several colleagues, urged the previous 
administration and then President Biden to grant temporary protected 
status to these Venezuelans. TPS is a temporary immigration status 
provided to foreign nationals if returning to their country would pose 
a serious threat to their safety because of ongoing conflict, 
environmental disaster, or other extraordinary conditions. It is the 
kind of commonsense move self-confident nations and leaders take to 
demonstrate global leadership and compassion--one I was glad President 
Biden made early in his Presidency.
  The original designation covered Venezuelans who arrived in the 
United States by March of 2021. Today, I call on the administration to 
make a similar designation for more recent Venezuelan arrivals. The 
Venezuelans I met in Chicago will tell you that conditions have only 
worsened since 2021. A new TPS designation would not provide permanent 
immigration status but, instead, a measure of American decency and 
solidarity with those who face violence and chaos in Venezuela.