Menendez comes out against Biden’s Venezuelan immigration plan

New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez on Thursday called on the Biden administration to reconsider its plan to expel Venezuelan asylum seekers to Mexico, just a day after the policy was announced.

Menendez, the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized the administration’s use of Title 42, a Trump-era policy that sought to defang the asylum system, in an attempt to reduce the number of Venezuelans entering the country.

“Expanding Title 42 to now include Venezuelans adds salt to an open wound while further eroding our asylum system that President Biden promised to restore,” said Menendez.

Under the administration’s new plan, up to 24,000 Venezuelans will be allowed to apply for work authorization and temporary residence in the United States, provided they have sponsors within the country and in most cases enter the United States via air travel.

That side of the new policy is modeled after Uniting for Ukraine, a largely successful program to streamline immigration processes for Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion of their country.

The flip side of the Biden administration’s policy is perhaps the broadest expansion of Title 42 – a policy that allows U.S. officials to quickly expel foreign nationals without screening for asylum claims.

Venezuelan nationals were previously not subject to Title 42, as Venezuela does not accept the return of its nationals expelled from the United States under that authority.

Mexico, which has previously accepted some Title 42 expellees from some Central American countries, has now agreed to accept Venezuelans as well.

“While replicating the successful model of Uniting for Ukraine to Venezuelans is the right thing to do, and I commend the Biden Administration for creating a new legal pathway for Venezuelans forced to flee [President Nicolás] Maduro’s misery, I cannot support any program that creates additional requirements for Venezuelans and is coupled with an inexcusable expansion of Trump’s Title 42,” said Menendez.

Title 42 authority is linked to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention order designed in theory to prevent the transmission of coronavirus among migrants, but which many believe was designed by the Trump White House with explicitly political intent.

The Biden administration in April tried to end Title 42, but was stopped by a federal judge who ordered the authority’s continued implementation.

Administration officials continue fighting in court to end Title 42, even as the Department of Homeland Security expands the program’s uses.

Menendez’s critique of the Biden administration’s use of Title 42 is a significant hiccup, as the New Jersey senator is seen as the top Democratic authority on relations with the Western Hemisphere.

Menendez, who The New York Times called “the Democrat the White House fears the most,” has also butted heads with the Biden administration over the withdrawal from Afghanistan, lifting terror designations on Colombian guerrilla groups, and diplomatic openings to Cuba and Venezuela.

Menendez joined a growing chorus of pro-immigrant groups and politicians criticizing the Biden rollout, which was initially sold as a new avenue of entry for Venezuelans, despite the fact that it has the potential to keep out more people than it lets in.

“It is my hope that the Biden Administration reconsiders the expulsion of additional Venezuelans under Title 42, and instead, affords Venezuelan refugees fleeing Maduro the same opportunities that were rightfully granted to Ukrainians fleeing Putin,” said Menendez.

And the New Jersey senator picked apart the details of the Biden plan.

“Unlike Ukrainians, this program creates an automatic disqualification for Venezuelans who have risked their lives to find temporary refuge in Panama and Mexico. Under this new program, more Venezuelans will be expelled under Title 42 than are eligible for parole,” he said.

“Likewise, the administration must continue to pursue their original goal of ending Title 42 in the courts, redesignating TPS for Venezuelans in the United States, and most importantly, expanding refugee resettlement processing for Venezuelans so they have permanent protections in the United States,” added Menendez.