The Department of Homeland Security issued a sharp rebuke Thursday following false reports that Venezuelan migrants were being invited to seek refugee status in the United States.
DHS officials moved quickly to correct the record after an online publication suggested the agency was encouraging Venezuelans to apply for refugee protection.
The department flatly rejected that claim.
“This is not what Secretary Noem said,” DHS stated in an official post on X.
The agency clarified that the Trump administration has taken the opposite approach by terminating a long-standing protection program for Venezuelan nationals.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has officially ended Temporary Protected Status for more than 500,000 Venezuelans previously allowed to remain on American soil under the program.
Those individuals must now prepare to return to their home country.
“Secretary Noem ended Temporary Protected Status for more than 500,000 Venezuelans and now they can go home to a country that they love,” the department announced.
The decision marks a significant reversal of immigration policy that had granted temporary refuge to Venezuelans fleeing their troubled nation.
DHS framed the move as a necessary correction following years of what it characterized as misguided enforcement practices.
Temporary Protected Status had been extended to Venezuelan nationals during a period of severe political turmoil and economic devastation in their homeland.
The protection was granted due to concerns about the authoritarian government of Nicolás Maduro.
The Trump administration now contends that circumstances in Venezuela have changed enough to eliminate the need for continued protected status.
Officials argue the country has stabilized sufficiently for mass returns.
DHS emphasized that President Trump’s policies are “bringing stability to Venezuela and bringing to justice an illegitimate narco-terrorist dictator who stole from his own people.”
The statement reflects the administration’s position that previous humanitarian protections were granted under circumstances that no longer exist.
Officials say blanket protections based on past conditions are being phased out.
Since the Venezuela operation on Saturday, President Donald Trump has issued a stark warning to Colombian President Gustavo Petro regarding drug trafficking operations.
He suggested that military intervention remains on the table if the South American nation fails to address its decades-long narcotics crisis.
Trump made his position clear while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One before returning to the White House from his Mar-A-Lago estate.
“Colombia is very sick, too. Run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he’s not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you,” Trump stated bluntly.
When a reporter pressed Trump on whether future U.S. operations within Colombian territory were being considered, the president responded immediately.
“Sounds good to me,” he said without hesitation.
The confrontation intensifies an already strained relationship between Trump and Petro, who have clashed repeatedly over the past year.
