In 2021, Enderson Figueredo told only his family and his closest friends about his plans to leave Venezuela.
Figueredo, like most Venezuelans, never wanted to leave the country. He debated leaving for five years, but upon seeing the continuous deterioration of his rights, opportunities, and quality of life and realizing that the Venezuelan crisis was never going to improve, he knew he had to leave. At the crack of dawn, he left for Columbia and applied for asylum and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for the United States.
Figueredo is now 30 years old, having lived and worked in Dallas for the last three years.
But soon, many Venezuelans may not be able to live this dream.
With the Trump administration’s decision to revoke TPS for Venezuelans who legally received it in 2023, over 500,000 individuals are at risk of deportation, according to NPR.
“There is no freedom of press in Venezuela,” Figueredo said. “There are no civil liberties. There is no freedom to exercise your rights, and there are thousands of Venezuelans who have left Venezuela suffering political persecution and can not return. Their return would represent a danger for their lives and their family’s lives.”
From Jan. 20-21, President Donald Trump issued multiple immigration laws regarding the increased influx of immigrants crossing into the U.S.
Most U.S. immigrants come from Latin-American countries such as Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, El Salvador and more, moving here to escape either political turmoil or violence.
“Normally, people decide to go on this journey because they have simply run out of options to have a better life,” Mexican Consul of Dallas Francisco de la Torre said. “Because of that desperate reason to move, people don’t wait for authorization from the American government to enter the country.”
For many without documentation, a better life involves a safe and good source of education. However, with the new executive orders, this dream could become less and less possible to attain.
Whereas the previous Sensitive Locations Policy, set by the Obama administration in 2011, protected certain locations such as churches and schools, the new policy allows the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to search those safe havens.
“ICE can go into a middle school, which they have done, and pick kids up or ask parents questions in terms of that nature,” Immigration Lawyer Hussein Sadruddin said.
The Trump administration asserts that the resignation of the policy was used to chase immigrants who are criminals.
“This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens — including murderers and rapists — who have illegally come into our country. Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement delivered on Jan. 21.
After that law was passed, multiple student districts and teachers have tried to stand against this law to protect their students. Some districts such as Alice ISD have warned parents on what to do in case their children are questioned.
“The majority of educational districts in North Texas, (especially the urban areas), made clear that they would keep protecting the rights of children so they aren’t forced to leave their studies and to keep their identity secret,” de la Torre said. “This is fundamental in Texas because as you know, a great part of the students are from immigrant origin.”
De la Torre also stressed that thousands of people will be affected by these laws — especially considering that Texas has 1.65 million illegal immigrants according to The Texas Tribune. The consulate is in charge of helping the immigrants from México with gaining some sort of paperwork in case of deportation.
“(We work with) documentation, which helps one obtain the proper identification from the Mexican government, primarily the passport,” de la Torre said. “Not always, but sometimes, on some occasions, one’s school ID won’t be enough, and they’ll have to show some other credentials that are government related.”
While facing these challenges, undocumented immigrants are also working around other obstacles. For example, most can’t use Medicare or social services despite working and paying taxes.
“That means they have to pay into it (the social system) so the government of the United States gets billions of dollars from individuals who will never be able to take advantage of that money that they’ve put into the system,” Sadruddin said.
Although Figueredo currently is not at risk of deportation, he understands that the turmoil for other immigrants and his country is far from over.
“There is always going to be someone who is against what a politician says, but a good politician does what is best for the majority,” Figueredo said, “Now in the case of the removal of TPS for Venezuelans, I believe that this is unfair for us. The measures that are being taken will leave over 300,000 Venezuelans without protection and at risk of deportation.”

Interviews from this story were
translated from Spanish by a staff member.