Venezuela (Executive Calendar)
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…
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
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.