SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The Biden administration is making it easier for nearly half a million Venezuelan migrants to live and work legally in the U.S.
The hope is that the move will provide some relief to cities dealing with a surge of newly arrived immigrants.
However, the news is getting mixed reactions.
"This new announcement is going to help a lot people for sure," said Andrea Piontkovski, an immigration attorney.
Piontkovski, who's Venezuelan, said that includes some of her clients.
"[Temporary Protected Status] gives you two things: It gives you protection from removal... deportation, and it gives you a work permit," she explained.
Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, is given to migrants whose home country is unsafe to return to.
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The Biden administration had previously granted TPS to Venezuelan migrants who arrived in the U.S. by March 2021.
The extension will grant TPS for 18 months to nearly 480,000 more Venezuelan migrants who were here before July 31, 2023.
Piontkovski said she represents people from all over the world.
While she called the extension beneficial, she added it's unfair to migrants from other countries.
"Because we have a lot of clients waiting from other countries, and they get this idea of, 'OK, what's going on with Venezuela that is different from my country,'" she said.
She said some of those clients have also been waiting for a long time to get approved.
"We had registrations for TPS from last year, and most of my clients have been waiting for a result on that and we haven't had any answers yet," she said.
Piontkovski still called the extension positive but said it only puts a small dent in addressing the immigration crisis.
"We have to keep pushing for changes, reforms that can be more fair to other people who have been waiting in line," Piontkovski said.
