Sen. Marco Rubio has called on President Trump to extend Temporary Protected Status to Venezuelans currently residing in the U.S.  It makes sense, of course, because their country is a socialist hellhole.

WASHINGTON – Marco Rubio has spent months pushing the White House to expand a temporary program that would allow Venezuelans who have fled Nicolás Maduro's regime to stay in the United States, according to a previously unpublished letter from Rubio to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

The letter, dated March 20, asks Tillerson and Kelly to "review the existing conditions in Venezuela and consider granting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to eligible Venezuelan nationals residing in the United States."

"In light of the ongoing political, economic, social and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, it is not in the best interests of the United States to deport non-violent Venezuelan nationals back to the country at this time," the letter reads.

Effectively giving Venezuelans refugee status is a mixed blessing, in that refugees in general aren't really refugees, but prospective welfare recipients.  Once word gets around that the door is open on such matters, the human waves begin, and the smuggling networks make billions while the taxpayers shell out.  Would Venezuelans be part of that?  It's unknown.  On the other hand, if there are people who deserve the title of refugee as a result of events over which they have no control, Venezuelans certainly qualify.

So here is a rundown of the pros and cons of extending Temporary Protected Status to Venezuelans already here in the U.S.:

• Venezuelans here amount to a standing rebuke to the failures of socialism, much as the Miami Cubans did in ages past.  Many of them are even the sort of people who will vote Republican if they naturalize.
• Venezuelans here now are generally the cream of the crop, the remnants of Venezuela's once prosperous middle class.  They are literate, civilized, cogent with U.S. values, and employable.  They are people who can use flush toilets and do not treat women on a par with barnyard animals.
• Compared to the other four countries whose nationals got recent Temporary Protected Status, Venezuelans look like a surer bet.  The hellholes whose nationals can stay here as TPS recipients include El Salvador, Haiti, Yemen, and Somalia, all of whose refugees have become major welfare recipients.  El Salvador pretty much considers TPS a U.S. aid program.
• There are unlikely to be any terrorists among the Venezuelan refugees, as has been the problem with Middle Eastern migrants rolling into Europe.

There are cons, too:

• While the U.S. has generally scarfed up the bulk of Venezuela's middle-class immigrants, there are quite a few down the pipeline who are not middle-class, but former Chavista voters.  Extending TPS could effectively incentivize a welfare class from Venezuela to move here.
• The move could provide relief to the Venezuelan government, which will, just as leftist El Salvador has, encourage its nationals to migrate in order to reduce domestic pressures for reform.
• Americans in general are tired of bringing more refugees in any time there is a problem.

Given what Venezuela has become, it's hard to imagine President Trump saying "no" to the Venezuelans, considering that Haiti and Somalia get this TPS privilege.  If he does say "yes," it will be worth it to watch how this goes for insight on what's really going on in Venezuela.