Venezuelan asylum seekers in the United States have welcomed the news of temporary permission to live and work in the country as a vital “helping hand” after the Biden administration announced that it would extend temporary protected status (TPS) to nearly half a million Venezuelan nationals.

The Department of Homeland Security announced that the TPS extension now includes those who arrived in the US by the end of July, whereas the previous cutoff date was 8 March 2021.

Department officials anticipate that about 472,000 Venezuelans will now become newly eligible for these temporary permissions, while the United Nations estimates that more than 7.3 million people have fled the political and economic crisis in Venezuela in recent years.

Many cross the US-Mexico border and request asylum, ending up in cities to go through the legal process where civic resources get stretched and yet they are not eligible for permission to work and also have relatively few established community contacts.