She arrived in the United States four years ago, fleeing repression in Venezuela. This immigrant sought refuge in the “land of the free” and began to live the American dream by starting a business and creating jobs. However, overnight, she lost her Temporary Protected Status (TPS) when the current administration abruptly eliminated this option. Today, she says she is trapped between the possibility of being arrested at any moment by immigration agents and the impossibility of returning to her homeland, where prison awaits her.
Entrepreneur Became Undocumented Overnight
One of the first actions of Donald Trump’s administration in January 2025 was to revoke TPS for Venezuela, a measure that had protected hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the United States from deportation. The decision was challenged in several courts, creating uncertainty within this community.
“I initially entered through asylum, but my case was administratively closed. Then I felt secure under TPS protection, but they took it away; it became like Russian roulette. One day we had protection, the next we didn’t, until we were left in limbo, including me,” says this entrepreneur, who owns a fast-food business in Charlotte.
Since then, life for this immigrant and her family has changed. For the first time, she began to feel persecuted in the “land of the free.”
“I can no longer feel at ease on the street; even now, I still can’t. I feel nervous; without doing anything wrong, I feel targeted. Simply for asking this country for protection—which I thought it would give me—and now I have nothing,” she laments.
Returning to Venezuela Is Not an Option
She says she has always believed in freedom as the highest value. While living in Venezuela, she joined the student movement opposing Nicolas Maduro’s dictatorship.
“In 2014, I went out to protest at my university. I studied psychology and faced many reprisals. I was detained by the Bolivarian National Police; I was assaulted. I have all that evidence in my asylum case. I have not been able to return to Venezuela; I am afraid to go back. Especially with the new laws. Currently, anyone who has applied for asylum (in the United States) is considered a traitor to the homeland by the government still in Venezuela,” she says.
Her Brother-in-Law Was Arrested, and No One Knows Why
The sense of persecution she describes became more real last year when her brother-in-law was arrested by immigration agents for no apparent reason.
“My sister’s husband has been here for eight years and was working in package delivery. While delivering a package, he was confronted by two people with their faces fully covered, without identifying themselves, and they took him away. He told the agents that he has a work permit, everything in order, that he entered the country legally, and has paid his taxes. The agents’ response was, ‘we don’t care,’” she says.
“My sister has a serious condition—she suffered an accident years ago. She doesn’t work full-time; she has a two-year-old child, and my brother-in-law was the family’s breadwinner. I supported her as much as I could, but the child kept asking for his father, and to this day no one knows why he was taken if he had nothing—no record, nothing.”
Twice Persecuted
“I left my country because of persecution, for speaking my mind, and I came here expecting protection. Now I’m also afraid to be here and unable to return to my country. What is happening right now is very sad. In these four years, I have never felt as unsafe and as scared as I do today,” she says.
This entrepreneur believes immigration laws should punish those who pose a threat to the country—not people like her, who contribute to development and job creation.
“Many immigrants came here for protection. We’ve been doing things right since day one. There should be real screening, because right now there isn’t,” she concludes.
Find this article in Spanish here.
This video was made possible thanks to the support of the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative (CJC)
