Senator Marco Rubio has proposed extending Temporary Protected Status to Venezuelans in the U.S. due to a significant growth in government-induced loss of life as new, more egregious totalitarian control is being imposed by the Nicolás Maduro government.

A new Constituent Assembly of thugs handpicked by President Maduro has replaced the legitimate National Assembly, whose 67% majority was composed of opposition members prior to a bogus election held on 30 July 2017.  Delcy Rodriguez heads this new Constituent Assembly, whose main purpose is to rewrite Chávez's constitution to drive Venezuela more left as a socialist totalitarian regime.  Venezuela has been hit with the highest inflation on Earth.  Protesters are being shot randomly by a combination of Cuban "advisers" and the Venezuelan military.  Food shortages cause rampant crime.  Maduro's secret service arrests people in the middle of the night, and loved ones don't know where they are being held.

The university system is so messed up in Venezuela that continuity of classes is a major problem.  We support our nephew and niece who are in the U.S. studying as foreign students, with the appropriate visas, to get degrees in chemical engineering and architecture.  Odd, isn't it?  These kids would like to work, whether it be flipping hamburgers or stocking shelves in a supermarket, but they are not permitted to do so by U.S. regulations.  There is an exception whereby the nephew can work a few hours a week at his college.  He attends two sister colleges, but when the secondary college asked him to be a math tutor, he was not allowed by law.  Oh, yes, and these kids took more than a year of English studies to be able to learn classes taught in English.  They are both honor roll students.  They are only a couple of many hundreds of examples of Venezuelans in the U.S. university system.

Other examples of Venezuelans here legally known personally include a medical doctor working as a nutritionist at GNC, a lawyer working at a day care, a refinery unit supervisor (instrumentation engineer background) driving rental cars back to their origin, a chemical engineer who works as a cashier at 7-11, a teacher who drops off Amazon packages at mailboxes, a dentist who works as a waiter.  The list goes on.

Venezuelans are not interested in welfare handouts.  They want to work to feed and house their families and give them the opportunities they had before this socialist blight was spread by Hugo Chávez.  Every Venezuelan would rather be home in Venezuela living and working where the family he left behind is barely hanging on.

Let's give Venezuelans a chance to have a normal life once again.  Support the Temporary Protected Status in the U.S.  They cannot become boat people like those from Cuba.  Garnering votes for one party or the other is not the question.  And yes, Venezuela's location is strategic if you think about it.  Russia and China have invested there and are likely to lose their shirts on their investments.  And no, do it not because Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world.  That oil's going to be there still when socialism achieves the death it so richly deserves.

Brian G. Tomlinson is a retired project director of industrial megaprojects built on five different continents and is a periodic contributor to American Thinker.