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As Violent Venezuelan Gang Plagues US, Biden DHS Issues Deportation Protections For Migrants From … Venezuela

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Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gangbangers took control of apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado, in 2024

 

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Jason Hopkins

The Biden administration rolled out deportation protections to nearly a million foreign nationals living in the United States, including hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans.

More than 900,000 beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will be allowed to register for an 18-month extension, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Friday. The massive roll out — just days before President Joe Biden leaves office and President-elect Donald Trump returns to power — includes TPS extensions for roughly 600,000 Venezuelans living in the country.

The extension came on the same day the U.S. government declared new sanctions against Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro. The deportation protections also follow growing anxiety over the presence of Tren de Aragua, an international crime syndicate that originated in Venezuela and has since wreaked havoc on American communities.

“The extension of TPS is due to extraordinary and temporary conditions that prevent eligible Venezuelan nationals from safely returning,” DHS said. “After reviewing the country conditions in Venezuela and consulting with interagency partners, it was determined that an 18-month TPS extension is warranted based on the severe humanitarian emergency the country continues to face due to political and economic crises under the inhumane Maduro regime.”

“These conditions have contributed to high levels of crime and violence, impacting access to food, medicine, healthcare, water, electricity, and fuel,” the DHS statement continued.

First established by the federal government in 1990, TPS provides certain deportation protections and work eligibility to those who receive its designation, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The White House may designate TPS for foreign nationals residing in the U.S. whose home countries are experiencing any number of situations that may make it dangerous for them to return, such as an ongoing military conflict or natural disaster.

Following Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat in November, several Democratic lawmakers pleaded with Biden to dole out new TPS extensions before he left office, calling the remaining days he has left a “critical window” before the Trump administration comes into power and cracks down on illegal immigration. President-elect Donald Trump has expressed interest in winding down TPS benefits.

Had the designation not been extended, Venezuelans currently enjoying TPS would’ve been obligated to leave the U.S. by April. Their 18-month extension means they are eligible to remain in the country until at least October 2026, according to DHS.

Venezuelans, experiencing incredible political and economic instability since Maduro came to power, have left their home country en masse in the past several years, with the destination of choice for many being the U.S. However, among the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan nationals making their way to the U.S. have been confirmed members of Tren de Aragua.

An internal investigation concluded that Tren de Aragua gangbangers took control of apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado, in 2024 and have utilized the area to bolster their criminal enterprise. In December, a couple in Aurora had been allegedly taken hostage by suspected members of the gang, dragged to one of their apartment buildings and tortured.

An internal DHS document stated that hundreds of migrants in the U.S. are potentially connected to the gang.

“As a part of our work to counter [Tren de Aragua] TdA, DHS has an ongoing operation to crack down on gang members through re-screening certain individuals previously encountered, in addition to the rigorous screening and vetting at the border,” a DHS spokesperson stated to the Daily Caller News Foundation when the report was leaked. “All individuals confirmed or suspected to be gang members are referred for criminal prosecution or detained and placed into Expedited Removal.”

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‘The One Place We Really Need To Change Policies’: One Of RFK Jr.’s Top Priorities

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Hailey Gomez

Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Thursday evening on Fox News that the “one place” he wants to see policies changed is within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Kennedy was confirmed as the new HHS secretary on Thursday, with the Senate’s final vote hitting 52-48. On “The Ingraham Angle,” Fox News’ Laura Ingraham said his critics will call his new plan a “nanny state.” She asked if he would ban food items like McDonald’s Big Mac.

“Oh, we’re not going to take [that away]. That’s what I’m saying. If you want to eat a Big Mac, you ought to,” Kennedy said. “But you ought to. But, you know, McDonald’s ought to be incentivized to use beef tallow when it’s cooking its Big Macs. So that they’re good for people rather than using seed oils or some other cooking oils that are actually going to probably make you sicker.”

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“So we want to do a number of things but not take away choice from people,” Kennedy added. “The one place that I would say that we need to really change policies is in the SNAP program and food stamps and in school lunches because there the federal government in many cases is paying for it. We shouldn’t be subsidizing people to eat poison.”

SNAP, a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program, provides food benefits to low-income families. Within a 2021 USDA report, the study said that nearly nine out of 10 SNAP participants faced barriers in “providing their households with a healthy diet throughout the month.”

During his run for president, Kennedy called out his concerns for Americans’ health, as Centers for Disease Control data states that over 100 million adults in the U.S. suffer from obesity and over 22 million adults have severe obesity. After withdrawing from the race and endorsing then-candidate Donald Trump for president, the term “Make America Healthy Again,” also known as MAHA, was coined.

WATCH:

Kennedy told Ingraham he believes in “freedom of choice” and wants to bring “radical transparency” so Americans can understand the effects of what they’re consuming.

“If you want to eat Twinkies, you ought to be able to eat them, but you ought to know what’s in them,” Kennedy said. “So a lot of what I’m going to do is about radical transparency, about making people understand, allowing people to understand and empower them with understanding that if you eat that, it may seem cheap, but it’s going to cost you in the long run. You’re going to get diabetes.”

“There are certain additives. We have 10,000 additives in our food,” Kennedy said. “The Europeans have 400. Many of the additives that we have are just illegal in Europe. We need to move more and more toward the European standard.”

Kennedy has previously addressed his concerns about seed oils in American food, telling Fox News during an October 2024 interview that the “unhealthy ingredients” are in the country’s foods due to being “heavily subsidized” despite “very serious illnesses, including body-wide inflammation.”

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Trump, Putin have begun negotiations to end Russia-Ukraine war

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Wallace White

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that negotiations to end the Ukraine-Russia war are underway following a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump said Putin agreed to begin negotiations over Ukraine during the call, with the president saying he would inform Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the negotiations imminently, according to a Truth Social post. Since the war began in February 2022, the U.S. has spent over $130 billion aiding Ukraine.

“We both reflected on the Great History of our Nations, and the fact that we fought so successfully together in World War II, remembering, that Russia lost tens of millions of people, and we, likewise, lost so many!” Trump said on Truth Social. “We each talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together. But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine. President Putin even used my very strong Campaign motto of, “COMMON SENSE.” We both believe very strongly in it. We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations.”

Zelenskyy said Friday that he was open to a peace deal amid Trump’s request for Ukraine to supply the U.S. with rare earth elements and other minerals in exchange for aid. During his campaign, Trump vowed to bring peace to Ukraine and the world.

Earlier on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Ukraine joining NATO and returning to its 2014 borders, when it retained control over Crimea and the currently disputed Donbass and Donetsk regions, was not “realistic.”

The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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