As the Friday night rush begins in the Triangle's unofficial Venezuelan street food corner, BB's Grill owner Ricardo Rossi grins as he prepares the Trimagnetica, a colossal burger with chicken, steak, pork and fried eggs.
Rossi was the first to set up his food truck in a parking lot off of Highway 70 at the edge of southeast Durham three years ago. Since then, three more food trucks owned by enterprising Venezuelan immigrants like him have sprung up, and a Mexican taco truck joined, too.
To complement his business, the 50-year-old Rossi opened a small bodega next to his truck where he sells Venezuelan groceries and snacks.
"We're enterprising people, educated people, we're people who lamentably had to flee their country," Rossi says. "We didn't want to leave."
North Carolina is home to approximately 25,000 Venezuelans, according to local Venezuelan organizations.
Much like the 7 million people who've left Venezuela in the last decade and hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who鈥檝e migrated to the U.S., Rossi and his family sought refuge from an economic collapse that unraveled under the regime of Nicol谩s Maduro 鈥� Venezuela's president since 2013.
Since arriving in 2017, Rossi worked various blue-collar jobs for years to get his business to where it is today, saving enough money to buy a home and invest in his new American life.
But now, he feels like it's all in jeopardy.
In late January, President Donald Trump's administration issued a decision to end an extension of Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for Venezuelans. Last week, the administration also ended extension of the legal protections for Haitians.
The news has blindsided Venezuelans who've sought refuge from South America's worst modern humanitarian crisis.
"At this moment, I'm wondering what's going to happen to my family, you know? I'm not reassured that these investments in my home, my business, my employees are safe," Rossi said. "I try not to look at the news because I get nervous."
Temporary Protected Status provides legal protections for some 863,000 people from 16 different countries 鈥� including Venezuela, Ukraine, Haiti, and El Salvador 鈥� who fled war, dictatorships, and natural disasters to seek refuge in the U.S.
The decision stands to for more than 300,000 Venezuelans in early April, potentially leaving them vulnerable to deportation to a country that the U.S. government has declared to be an autocratic and violent regime. Protections for a second group of some 250,000 Venezuelans currently extended through September but are likely to end as well.
Rossi has an asylum case and previously applied for TPS, but he says he was denied. His daughter, however, has TPS and it ensured her long-term stay.
"I plead to the authorities and the president to review the TPS cases carefully," Rossi said. "The cases for people who came here to do good. For the people who have embraced this country as theirs, bought a home, paid taxes, with work permits and Social Security ... to do everything the best that they can."
Humanitarian parole programs that provide legal status for recently arrived Venezuelan migrants and refugees are also in Trump's crosshairs. On Jan. 28, the White House announced it would end the Biden Administration program to temporarily allow the entrance of more than half-a-million migrants fleeing from countries that also include Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua.
It was for Venezuelans in 2021 while in the last days of his first presidential term.
On Feb. 20, a group of Venezuelan TPS recipients over its decision, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Among the justifications for ending the protections, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem previously said she believed TPS had been "abused and exploited by illegal aliens."
But Venezuela is in no condition to receive the hundreds of thousands who've fled, says Patricia Parada, leader of the Raleigh chapter of Casa de Venezuela, a national organization that supports recently arrived Venezuelans.
"The humanitarian crisis, the political crisis, the economic, and social crises are increasingly more difficult," Parada said. "That's why this decision shocked us so much."
Parada is a former asylum seeker who migrated to the U.S. a decade ago, and says many people close to her are TPS recipients.
"We've been holding national meetings on a near weekly basis and we've learned there is word of lawmakers who are helping mediate a solution," Parada said.
The Venezuelan government recently prohibited reentry of its citizens without a valid passport, which has expired for many people who have left in the last decade. There aren鈥檛 any open Venezuelan consulates in the U.S. since 2023. Citizens must travel to embassies outside of the U.S. in hopes of renewing their documents.
Durham-based historian and founding member of the Venezuelan Cultural Association of North Carolina, Miguel Chirinos, notes that North Carolina and Venezuela have shared connections since the 19th century 鈥� the first U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, John G. A. Williamson, was born in Roxboro.
He says the situation isn't completely hopeless for the community.
"We're optimistic that probably something is going to happen, just we have to wait," Chirinos said. "I know that it's a big question mark right now, but sooner or later, this American administration has to do something about it."
Some of those affected could still stay in the U.S. through a legal refugee status due to Venezuela's conditions, he said.
tracked by Syracuse University shows that more than 132,000 Venezuelans had pending asylum cases as of December.
