Washington DC, June 12: United States President Donald Trump has on Tuesday said he was looking forward to providing temporary asylum to Venezuelans who have fled to America amidst political turmoil in Caracas.
According to Al-Jazeera news reports, Trump stated the condition of Venezuela was a horrible state that has “been brewing for a long time” and that his administration was “very seriously” looking to providing thousands of Venezuelans temporary protected status.
However, the move is expected to conflict with the US president’s tough immigration stance. US administration has moved towards discontinuing the TPS (Temporary Protection Status) for several nations. Also, Trump has implemented a “zero-tolerance” decree at the US southern border.
TPS is provided to people from nations ravaged by war or natural disasters and grants them to stay in America until their homeland’s situation is back to normal.
Two US Congressional panels already advanced the bills granting protections of thousands of Venezuelans.
Venezuela’s fall due to poor governance, corruption and the misguided policies of President Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez is the single largest economic collapse outside of the war in 45 years, outpacing Zimbabwe’s crumbling under Robert Mugabe, Cubas disastrous unraveling in the 1990s and the fall of the Soviet Union, economists say.
But Venezuela, at one point Latin America’s wealthiest country, has not been shattered by armed conflict. Instead, economists say, the poor governance, corruption and misguided policies of Maduro and Chavez have increased inflation, shuttered businesses and brought the country to its knees.
As Venezuela’s economy plummeted, armed gangs took control of entire towns, public services collapsed and the purchasing power of most Venezuelans has been reduced to a couple of kg of flour a month.