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.”

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Mariane Angela

Victor Davis Hanson, Wednesday on Newsmax, slammed the implementation of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) criteria in fire department hiring practices in California.

During an appearance on “Finnerty,” Hanson said these policies prioritize DEI above essential firefighting qualifications like experience and physical readiness. Hanson said that hiring workers based on DEI led to an ill-equipped workforce in the state.

“The DEI fire chief, 70% of her hires have been based on DEI. Not muscularity, not experience, not size, not competence. The primary criterion was DEI. And so the only… thing that is different about this is that this was not the inner city. This was, as Donald Trump mentioned, and I’ve taught at Pepperdine, I just got back from there. This is the most elite area of California,” Hanson told Rob Finnerty.

Hanson also said that there’s a broader failure in California’s management of natural resources and emergency preparedness.

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“This could have been prevented long-term. We’re letting out all of the water that comes out. 90% of the water from the northern rivers goes out to the sea,” Hanson said. “The aqueduct transfers that water down to LA. They should have had more water. They don’t. The insurance system is completely broken because of overregulation, fraud, and mismanagement by the state. So you cannot buy fire insurance in most cases.”

Hanson said that the systemic failures not only threaten the physical landscape but also risk the financial stability of California’s wealthiest communities, potentially resulting in billions of dollars in losses.

“These are the wealthiest zip codes. And if these people, and many of them didn’t have insurance, even they couldn’t, some of them get insurance. And if this is not going to be rebuilt, they’re going to lose billions of dollars of taxpayers, productive citizens,” Hanson said.

Hanson said there is a need to return to merit-based hiring and sensible state management policies to prevent such disasters in the future.

“And it all could have been prevented had we had meritocratic hiring, had we had plenty water, plenty full of water, if we had a different forest policy, a different firefighting policy, a different insurance policy,” Hanson said.

Actor James Woods also criticized how he said the government handled the crisis as wildfires ravaged Los Angeles. He specifically targeted Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and called him a “blithering idiot.” Woods said the state’s inadequate fire preparedness and response was the result of Newsom’s repeated mismanagement.