page_title: Venezuelan refugee crisis
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Venezuelan refugee crisis / Destinations / United States
caption_attribution_description: English: Number of Venezuelans granted permanent residence in United States per year.
context_page_description: The Venezuelan migration and refugee crisis, the largest recorded refugee crisis in the Americas, refers to the emigration of millions of Venezuelans from their native country during the presidencies of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro because of the Bolivarian Revolution. The revolution was an attempt by Chávez and later Maduro to establish a cultural and political hegemony, which culminated in the crisis in Bolivarian Venezuela. The resulting refugee crisis has been compared to those faced by Cuban exiles, Syrian refugees and those affected by the European migrant crisis. The Bolivarian government has denied any migratory crisis, stating that the United Nations and others are attempting to justify foreign intervention within Venezuela.
  Newsweek described the "Bolivarian diaspora" as "a reversal of fortune on a massive scale", where the "reversal" is a comparison with Venezuela's high immigration rate during the 20th century. Initially, upper class Venezuelans and scholars emigrated during Chávez's presidency, but middle- and lower-class Venezuelans began to leave as conditions worsened in the country.
context_section_description: The United States is one of the main destinations for Venezuelan emigrants. The number of U.S. residents who identified as Venezuelan increased by 135 percent between 2000 and 2010, from 91,507 to 215,023. In 2015, it was estimated that about 260,000 Venezuelans had emigrated to the United States. According to researcher Carlos Subero, "[t]he vast majority of Venezuelans trying to migrate enter the country with a non-immigrant tourist or business visa", statistics showing that 527,907 Venezuelans remain in the United States with non-immigrant visas. The Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) reported that in 2007, 14 percent of Venezuelans 25 and older in the United States had a doctoral degree; above the U.S. average of nine percent.
  The largest community of Venezuelans in the United States lives in South Florida. Between the years 2000 and 2012, the number of legal Venezuelan residents in Florida increased from 91,500 to 259,000. In 2015, the Venezuelan Refugee Assistance Act was proposed by four Florida delegates to the United States House of Representatives. The act would adjust the status of Venezuelans without a criminal record or involvement in persecution who arrived in the United States before January 1, 2013, with a deadline of January 1, 2019 to apply for adjustment. One chief sponsor, U.S. Representative Carlos Curbelo, said: "This bill will help those Venezuelan nationals who have made a new home in the United States to remain here if they choose to, since it is dangerous to return home". The bill was sent to the House Judiciary Committee.
caption: Number of Venezuelans granted permanent residence in the United States per year (by Venezuelan president), with asylum applications (per United States Department of Homeland Security)[139][140][141]
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