In 2021, then-President Joe Biden's administration granted Temporary Protected Status to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants who'd entered the country illegally, effectively saving them from the risk of deportation to their nation of origin.

On Wednesday, that 2021 TPS designation for Venezuelans was formally ended by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, rendering nearly 270,000 formerly protected Venezuelan nationals eligible for deportation, according to Fox News.

The move comes amid a broader Trump administration effort to exert increased pressure on Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicholas Maduro, the criminal Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, and the illicit drug trafficking trade that helps finance the socialist narco-state.

Venezuelan TPS designation ended

Fox News reported that former President Biden's administration issued two TPS designations for Venezuelan migrants, in 2021 and 2023, that protected from deportation approximately 268,000 and 348,000 illegal aliens, respectively.

The 2023 designation was previously ended in April, and on Wednesday, a DHS press release announced that Sec. Noem had likewise terminated the 2021 designation, which was set to expire on September 10, with an effective date for the termination around 60 days later.

An unnamed DHS spokesperson said, "Given Venezuela’s substantial role in driving irregular migration and the clear magnet effect created by Temporary Protected Status, maintaining or expanding TPS for Venezuelan nationals directly undermines the Trump Administration’s efforts to secure our southern border and manage migration effectively."

"Weighing public safety, national security, migration factors, immigration policy, economic considerations, and foreign policy, it’s clear that allowing Venezuelan nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is not in America’s best interest," they added.

TPS never intended to be a "de facto asylum system"

The press release noted that Sec. Noem appropriately conferred with relevant "interagency partners," including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department, to reach the determination that "conditions in Venezuela no longer meet the TPS statutory requirements."

Venezuelan migrants previously considered safe under the now-revoked TPS designation were encouraged to "self-deport" using the new CBP Home app, through which they would be eligible to receive a complimentary one-way plane ticket, a $1,000 exit bonus, and an opportunity to later return to the U.S. through the standard legal procedures.

In an X post on the department's official account, DHS said, "TPS was never meant to be a de facto asylum system, yet that is exactly what the Biden administration turned it into."

"Today, @Sec_Noem is correcting the Biden administration’s decision to turn TPS into a loophole for permanent residence and terminating Venezuela’s Temporary Protected Status," the post added. "Their free stay in America is over, they must return home immediately."

Pressure campaign against Venezuela

Meanwhile, Fox News reported that the FBI recently revealed its determination that Venezuelan government officials "likely facilitate" the illegal migration into the U.S. of members of that nation's notorious criminal gang Tren de Aragua, which has been formally designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration.

It was just this week that the Pentagon reported that U.S. military assets deployed to the region around Venezuela had conducted a successful strike on an alleged drug boat originating from that South American nation that was carrying up to 11 TdA members and a load of illicit narcotics.

At the same time, the U.S. government has imposed a $50 million bounty on the criminally indicted socialist dictator Maduro, who is accused of secretly running Venezuela's cartels and gangs and using the profits of the illicit drug trade to finance his regime.