TPS for Venezuelans Was a Big Biden Move. How Does It Play in Miami's

3/10/2021 Biden’s TPS change is intertwined with Miami politics | Miami Herald

TPS for Venezuelans was a big Biden move. How does it play in Miami’s politics?

BY ALEX DAUGHERTY MARCH 09, 2021 04:13 PM, UPDATED MARCH 09, 2021 08:35 PM    

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Leaders with Venezuela’s opposition urged the incoming Biden administration to grant special status to migrants from the South American country that would allow them to live and work in the United States. BY JOSÉ A. IGLESIAS 

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Sanctions announced by the Trump administration warranted a full-court public relations push, with surrogates like former national security adviser John Bolton traveling to Miami for symbolic speeches. Statements by left-leaning Democrats that were seen as conciliatory toward Nicolás Maduro’s regime drove news cycles in Miami and outrage from the GOP. And even events seemingly disconnected from electoral politics and federal policy — like Turkish chef Nusret Gökçe serving Maduro elaborately salted steak while his citizens starved — led to protests attended by local Republicans outside Gökçe’s Brickell restaurant.

But when President Joe Biden made good on a campaign promise in granting Temporary Protected Status to thousands of Venezuelans living in South Florida, it was done with little fanfare.

None of Biden’s top officials made a South Florida trip to announce TPS for Venezuelans though a local group of activists and former elected officials planned to hold a rally on Tuesday in Doral, home to the largest concentration of Venezuelans in the country. Biden himself has not publicly acknowledged the acknowledgments of TPS for Venezuelans from senior administration officials.

“These are easy opportunities to get positive earned media in the most important market in the state of Florida,” said Jesse Manzano-Plaza, a Republican political consultant based in Miami. “I think the Trump administration on those issues was always phenomenal at delivering the message. Sometimes on the message itself there wasn’t a lot of substance but the delivery of the message was significant.”

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DOES POLICY OUTWEIGH OPTICS?

Local Democrats contend that Biden’s policy change matters more than any messaging, and that the president took a concrete step to improve the lives of Venezuelans who fled the Maduro regime that Trump did not. While Venezuelan TPS recipients won’t be able to vote, the humanitarian crisis is a major concern for Venezuelan Americans and other South Florida Hispanics who shifted toward the Republican Party during the 2020 election.

“It signals to the broader Florida Hispanic community that President Biden is going to be engaged and active on Latin America policy in a responsible way,” said Christian Ulvert, a Miami-based Democratic strategist who was an adviser for Biden’s Florida campaign and helped organize campaign events like Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to a Venezuelan restaurant in Doral. “It’s no longer a myth of what he’s going to do.”

Monday’s TPS designation allows Venezuelan nationals in the U.S. to live and work without the fear of deportation for at least 18 months. The estimated 320,000 eligible individuals have 180 days to apply and are required to provide proof they entered the United States before the March 8 order was issued.

Ulvert said that Democrats, unlike Republicans, are united in their support for TPS and continuing to apply pressure on Maduro. He also noted that South Florida Republicans, notably Sen. Marco Rubio, were unable to persuade their GOP colleagues or Trump to agree to TPS.

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“At the end of the day Senator Rubio and Senator [Rick] Scott didn’t use any ounce of political capital to get this done,” Ulvert said. “When the U.S. Senate was in control of Republicans, they didn’t get TPS through the finish line. They refused to use political capital for a constituency they pander on.”

Scott attempted to pass TPS for Venezuela in 2019 on the Senate floor by adding an amendment to review the status of TPS designated countries every two years as a way to appease conservatives. Democrats blocked his proposal.

And local Democrats took credit on Tuesday for getting TPS done without acknowledging the efforts of Republicans like Miami Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, the sponsor of a TPS for Venezuela bill who wasn’t part of a virtual press conference held by Democrats in Washington to tout TPS. Democrats, including Rep. Stephanie Murphy, who could run against Rubio in 2022, said their work on Venezuela is just beginning.

“TPS must be part of a broader American strategy,” Murphy said. “TPS is necessary but it's not enough."

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz,Shop now a Broward Democrat who represents more Venezuelan Americans than any other Florida Democrat, said, “Elections have consequences, and Venezuelans can now see it’s a new day in America.”

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BIDEN STILL LOST FLORIDA BADLY But Republicans argue that Biden’s TPS pledge was well-known during his 2020 campaign and that his messaging with South Florida Hispanics still fell flat. Biden lost to Trump by 3.3% in 2020, the largest margin of defeat in a Florida presidential election since 2004.

“This is ultimately an immigration move, and as we saw in 2020, immigration policy is just not as effective as a Latino voter recruitment tool for Democrats as it once was, especially in Florida,” said Giancarlo Sopo, a Cuban-American communications strategist involved in Hispanic outreach for the Trump campaign. “Joe Biden campaigned on granting TPS to Venezuelans and the Democrats still suffered their worst performance in Miami-Dade County in a generation.”

Sopo also said that Trump’s decision to grant Deferred Enforced Departure for Venezuelans on his last day in office blunted some of the policy impacts of Biden’s TPS designation. DED functions similarly to TPS but is not enshrined into law, meaning the president has discretion on whether it stays or goes.

Helena Poleo, a Venezuelan-American Democratic strategist who advised the Biden campaign, said Democrats can promote Biden’s policies more effectively than local Republicans who often found their messages undercut by Trump’s own actions and unpredictable personnel decisions. Trump, for example, once referred to

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Maduro as “smart” and “tough” according to a book written by Bolton after he was “I don’t think there’s anything to sell,” Poleo said. “It’s not a lie.”

Poleo said the outreach to Venezuelans in South Florida must take place at the local level, and Democrats can’t be afraid to push back against Republican accusations of socialism.

“This helps our efforts a lot because we have actions to point to, not empty words,” Poleo said.

But Manzano-Plaza said he was surprised the TPS rollout didn’t include a big-name Biden administration official like Mayorkas doing an event with community leaders and local elected officials.

He noted that even if Biden places less value on Florida’s electoral politics than Trump did, there are still local Republicans like Reps. Carlos Gimenez and Maria Elvira Salazar who should face strong Democratic opposition in 2022. TPS gives Democrats a “card to play” during the midterm elections, he said.

“That guy is the Cuban in the administration,” said Manzano-Plaza, referring to Mayorkas, a Cuban-born refugee from the Castro regime. “He’s the one they need to send down here.”

McClatchy DC White House correspondent Michael Wilner contributed to this report.