Three days after a federal judge upheld the extension of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans through 2026, immigration authorities detained Jeferson Pacheco Cruces during a routine immigration check-in appointment. According to his partner, he presented documents showing he was protected under TPS for Venezuelans, but immigration agents told him it wasn’t valid.

When a San Francisco federal judge “ruled in favor of the Venezuelans, I was so happy — it felt such a relief,” said Karina Pino, Pacheco’s partner. “Jeferson had an upcoming immigration check-in, and the thought of it was taking away his peace of mind. He was worried he might be detained, but I truly believed the judge’s ruling would protect him. And yet, they detained him anyway.”

Lawyers and Venezuelan advocates tracking detained TPS holders told The Miami Herald that hundreds of Venezuelans have been arrested across the United States in the past four months. The Miami Herald interviewed 30 family members of Venezuelan TPS holders who are currently detained in several states including Florida, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma, California and Pennsylvania.

Pacheco and Pino have been together for more than 10 years. The couple first emigrated to Ecuador, then to Colombia, but left fearing growing prejudice against Venezuelans. Pacheco went to Tulsa in 2021, and Pino joined him the following year. In Oklahoma, they hoped to settle and build a life together.

In August 2024 they purchased a home together. Pacheco, 39, who holds a college degree in sports education from Venezuela, was working at a school-bus assembly company. He is the father of two children from a previous relationship and also helps raise Pino’s son. All three have TPS protection, but Pino, 45, now fears not only for the fate of her life partner, but also for her own and her son’s future.

Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor Immigration and Customs Enforcement responded to Herald questions about why they were detaining TPS holders across the country despite the ruling from U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, who is based in San Francisco.

Most of the detained Venezuelans belong to a group designated for TPS in 2023. That group experienced a protection gap between May 19, when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to end TPS, and Sept. 5, when Chen ruled on the merits of the case, upholding the extension of the protections through October 2026. A few of the detained Venezuelans have held TPS since 2021, but all have complied with re-registration requirements, possess valid work permits and have been building their lives in the United States, according to records reviewed by the Herald.

The majority of Venezuelans with TPS who are currently detained crossed the U.S. border with Mexico between 2021 and 2023. However, some entered the country legally through airports. Among those detained, 27 Venezuelans also have ongoing immigration processes, including pending asylum cases. One of the detainees even has a pending green card application.

To qualify for TPS protections, beneficiaries must pass criminal and background checks. Being convicted of two misdemeanors or one felony can bar someone from obtaining the protection or keeping it if they have it already. The Herald conducted criminal records searches at the county, state, and federal level for the Venezuelans featured in this story and did not find any criminal charges or convictions.

The Board of Immigration Appeals recently issued a ruling that significantly limits immigration judges’ authority to review custody decisions by ICE for individuals who have not been formally “admitted” into the United States. That legal interpretation is one of the key reasons many TPS holders, despite having no criminal records, no pending immigration violations, and active deportation protection, are still being detained, lawyers told the Herald.

“The government changed the rules in the middle of the game. My client has the right to be free and has complied with every DHS request since arriving in the U.S.. He has a strong asylum case — he was severely persecuted by the (Nicolás) Maduro regime,” said Andres Perez, immigration attorney for Omar Vergara Flores, a Venezuelan who holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture and a degree in informatics. Vergara has been detained in Texas since June.

Vergara, 36, was detained during a routine immigration check-in in San Antonio. He works for an American canned-soup company.

Although an immigration judge initially denied Vergara’s asylum claim, the case is currently pending an appeal.

“Now the government claims that anyone who entered without inspection, even those like my client with TPS, who were permitted to remain in the U.S. can be held in prolonged detention contrary to decades of precedent, potentially until their deportation protection expires, at which point they could be deported,” Vergara’s immigration attorney said. “This is unjust and contrary to long-established principles of due process.”

Vergara’s wife, Jennyfer Carrillo, described him as a loving person, with an entrepreneur vision. In Venezuela he created a pastry brand that gave him economic stability in the Andean city where they lived.

“Our dream vanished when Omar was detained,” said Carrillo, who has been with Vergara for more than 16 years. “We had stable jobs, we were part of American society, and we worked hard to buy a home. Our dream was coming true — and then it all disappeared.”

The couple purchased a home under construction in Austin in September 2024 and moved in this past April. “Omar lived in our house for only one month before he was detained,” Carrillo said.

The majority of Venezuelans with TPS who were detained, and whose families were interviewed by the Herald, were taken into custody during routine ICE check-ins. However, at least three were stopped while driving and detained during what their families described as “bounty hunting.”

Immigration attorneys argue that if a Venezuelan with TPS was detained during the period when the protection was temporarily revoked by the Supreme Court’s decision, they should have been released immediately after the federal judge upheld the extension. But that has not happened in these cases.

“Any Venezuelan whose TPS has been reinstated should be released from ICE detention if the only basis for their custody was the prior withdrawal of TPS under the Trump administration,” said James K. Larsen, an immigration attorney representing several Venezuelans with TPS in detention. “TPS is meant to provide meaningful protections — including lawful work authorization — that are fundamentally inconsistent with detention.”

There are few legal avenues for the Venezuelans with TPS held in detention facilities across the country.

Anthony Dominguez, immigration attorney for Cleimber Rojas Garcia, a Venezuelans TPS holder who has been detained in Pennsylvania since June, said people with TPS who are being held in immigration detention centers can submit a parole request — a step he has already taken on behalf of Rojas. If that request is denied, he is considering filing a habeas corpus petition in federal court challenging the detention. Rojas Garcia, who was previously a professional boxer in Panama, remains in custody despite his TPS protection.

Dominguez considers the detention of Rojas — and other Venezuelans with TPS — to be unlawful. He cited the TPS statute, which states that an “alien provided temporary protected status ... shall not be detained by the Attorney General on the basis of the alien’s immigration status in the United States.”

The recent wave of detentions appears to conflict with federal protections granted under TPS, which is specifically designed to shield eligible Venezuelan nationals from deportation due to unsafe conditions in their home country.

Just one day after Mario Monteverde left the maternity hospital in Buffalo, New York, with his wife and their premature newborn, he was detained by immigration authorities, despite holding full TPS extension approval, with his protection officially confirmed in April.

Monteverde is among the few Venezuelans who have already received full TPS approval. Most Venezuelans in similar situations have only received the initial receipt notice, a valid document that provides protection under TPS. His detention came after the family had spent nearly a month in the hospital due to complications from the birth of their baby, Melian, who was born at 31 weeks.

Monteverde’s wife, Odalis Morillo, now bears the burden of supporting their eight children —including their newborn — while also caring for a premature baby who is just three months old, only one month older than the amount of time her father has been in detention.

“I’m alone with my eight children now. We’re a family that doesn’t ask the government for anything — we were working hard and taking care of our own,” said Morillo. “Then I got pregnant and had my son, but I can’t support my family on my own.”

The family entered the country in July 2023. They had left Colombia and crossed the Darien jungle to cross Central America and enter the U.S.. Then she got pregnant with their latest child.

“The administration is doing this for two reasons: to detain and deport everyone possible — particularly non-criminals and children despite their false claims to the contrary — in order to motivate its base not only to vote but to donate money, and to enrich the private prison corporations that charge ridiculous fees to keep people locked up for profit,” said Andres Perez, an immigration attorney representing a Venezuelans TPS holder in immigration detention.

“Even people who do in fact qualify for bonds are held longer than necessary, while these corporations profit by billing the government,” he added. “These DHS policies do not serve to protect the public, but to benefit these corporations, whose board members have contributed substantially to the Trump campaign and affiliated PACs.”

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