Bill Text: FL S1756 | 2020 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Temporary Protected Status to Venezuelans in the United States
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2020-03-14 - Died in Judiciary [S1756 Detail]
Download: Florida-2020-S1756-Introduced.html
Florida Senate - 2020 SM 1756
By Senator Flores
39-01703-20 20201756__
1 Senate Memorial
2 A memorial to the Congress of the United States and
3 the President of the United States, urging them to
4 grant temporary protected status to Venezuelans in the
5 United States.
6
7 WHEREAS, Venezuela is enduring an unprecedented economic,
8 humanitarian, security, and refugee crisis, consisting of
9 extreme food and medicine shortages, severe infant and child
10 malnutrition, rampant crime, and government-sponsored
11 repression, and
12 WHEREAS, Venezuela’s economic crisis continues unabated,
13 and the International Monetary Fund estimates that the annual
14 inflation in Venezuela reached almost 265,000 percent in July
15 2019, and
16 WHEREAS, in 2017, the Office of the United Nations High
17 Commissioner for Human Rights reported the deaths of 124 persons
18 in Venezuela which could be attributed to violations of the
19 right to freedom of peaceful assembly, and, in July 2019, the
20 office reported the deaths of 66 persons during protests between
21 January and May 2019, 52 of which were attributable to
22 government security forces or pro-government armed groups, and
23 WHEREAS, from September 2017 through April 2018, a review
24 of pharmacies in five major cities in Venezuela showed a
25 shortage of nearly 85 percent of medicine essential to treat
26 four of the most recurrent causes of morbidity in the country,
27 including diarrhea, respiratory tract infections, diabetes, and
28 high blood pressure, and
29 WHEREAS, according to the Office of the United Nations High
30 Commissioner for Human Rights, Venezuelan intelligence and
31 security forces have increasingly used arbitrary arrests and
32 detentions to repress and intimidate civil society, political
33 opponents, and voices of dissent, and
34 WHEREAS, in the June 2018 report published by the Office of
35 the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid
36 Ra’ad Al Hussein, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
37 Rights, stated, “The failure to hold security forces accountable
38 for such serious human rights violations suggests that the rule
39 of law is virtually absent in Venezuela,” and
40 WHEREAS, according to United Nations figures, more than
41 four million Venezuelans have fled the country, the largest
42 exodus in the recent history of Latin America and the Caribbean,
43 and
44 WHEREAS, by early 2018, more than half of all Venezuelans
45 had lost between 19 and 24 pounds, and today 90 percent of all
46 Venezuelans do not have enough money to buy food and 60 percent
47 live in extreme poverty, and
48 WHEREAS, the minimum monthly wage in 2017 bought only 12
49 percent of one Venezuelan’s basic food needs, and by 2018,
50 approximately 5,000 people per day were leaving Venezuela in
51 search of food, and
52 WHEREAS, the people of Venezuela are facing a dire need for
53 temporary protected status, NOW, THEREFORE,
54
55 Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
56
57 That Venezuela is in a humanitarian crisis, and the
58 Legislature of the State of Florida condemns Venezuelan
59 President Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian steps to undermine
60 democratic institutions and urges the Congress of the United
61 States and the President of the United States to grant temporary
62 protected status to Venezuelans in the United States.
63 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State dispatch
64 copies of this memorial to the President of the United States,
65 to the President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of
66 the United States House of Representatives, and to each member
67 of the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.
