Miami, FL
Miami’s ‘Little Venezuela’ fears Trump’s moves against migration
Wilmer Escaray left Venezuela in 2007 and enrolled at Miami Dade College, opening his first restaurant six years later.
Today he has a dozen businesses that hire Venezuelan migrants like he once was, workers who are now terrified by what could be the end of their legal shield from deportation.
Since the start of February the Trump administration has ended two federal programs that together allowed more 700,000 Venezuelans to live and work legally in the U.S. along with hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans.
In the largest Venezuelan community in the United States, people dread what could face them if lawsuits that aim to stop the government fail. It’s all anyone discusses in “Little Venezuela” or “Doralzuela,” a city of 80,000 people surrounded by Miami sprawl, freeways and the Florida Everglades.
Deportation fears in Doralzuela
People who lose their protections would have to remain illegally at the risk of being deported or return home, an unlikely route given the political and economic turmoil in Venezuela.
“It’s really quite unfortunate to lose that human capital because there are people who do work here that other people won’t do,” Escaray, 37, said at one of his “Sabor Venezolano” restaurants.
Spanish is more common than English in shopping centers along Doral’s wide avenues, and Venezuelans feel like they’re back home but with more security and comfort.
A sweet scent wafts from round, flat cornmeal arepas sold at many establishments. Stores at gas stations sell flour and white cheese used to make arepas and T-shirts and hats with the yellow, blue and red stripes of the Venezuelan flag.
New lives at risk
John came from Venezuela nine years ago and bought a growing construction company with a partner. He and his wife are on Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, which Congress created in 1990 for people in the United States whose homelands are considered unsafe to return due to natural disaster or civil strife. Beneficiaries can live and work while it lasts but TPS carries no path to citizenship.
Born in the U.S., their 5-year-old daughter is a citizen. John, 37, asked to be identified by first name only for fear of being deported.
His wife helps with administration at their construction business while working as a real-estate broker. The couple told their daughter that they may have to leave the United States. Venezuela is not an option.
“It hurts us that the government is turning its back on us,” John said. “We aren’t people who came to commit crimes; we came to work, to build.”
A federal judge ordered on March 31 that temporary protected statuswould stand until a legal challenge’s next stage in court and at least 350,000 Venezuelans were temporarily spared becoming illegal. Escaray, the owner of the restaurants, said nearly all of his 150 employees are Venezuelan and more than 100 are on TPS.
The federal immigration program that allowed more than 500,000 Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians and Nicaraguans to work and live legally in the U.S. — humanitarian parole — expires April 24 absent court intervention.
Politics of migration
Venezuelans were one of the main beneficiaries when former President Joe Biden sharply expanded TPS and other temporary protections. Trump tried to end them in his first term and now his second.
The end of the temporary protections has generated little political reaction among Republicans except for three Cuban-American representatives from Florida who called for avoiding the deportations of affected Venezuelans. Mario Díaz Ballart, Carlos Gimenez and Maria Elvira Salazar have urged the government to spare Venezuelans without criminal records from deportation and review TPS beneficiaries on a case-by-case basis.
The mayor of Doral, home to a Trump golf club since 2012, wrote a letter to the president asking him to find a legal pathway for Venezuelans who haven’t committed crimes.
“These families do not want handouts,” said Christi Fraga, a daughter of Cuban exiles. “They want an opportunity to continue working, building, and investing in the United States.”
A country’s elite, followed by the working class
About 8 million people have fled Venezuela since 2014, settling first in neighboring countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. After the COVID-19 pandemic, they increasingly set their sights on the United States, walking through the notorious jungle in Colombia and Panama or flying to the United States on humanitarian parole with a financial sponsor.
In Doral, upper-middle-class professionals and entrepreneurs came to invest in property and businesses when socialist Hugo Chávez won the presidency in the late 1990s. They were followed by political opponents and entrepreneurs who set up small businesses. In recent years, more lower-income Venezuelans have come for work in service industries.
They are doctors, lawyers, beauticians, construction workers and house cleaners. Some are naturalized U.S. citizens or live in the country illegally with U.S.-born children. Others overstay tourist visas, seek asylum or have some form of temporary status.
Thousands went to Doral as Miami International Airport facilitated decades of growth.
Frank Carreño, president of the Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce and a Doral resident for 18 years, said there is an air of uncertainty.
“What is going to happen? People don’t want to return or can’t return to Venezuela,” he said.
Five men are facing charges after an undercover teen sex trafficking investigation in Miami, authorities said.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office Human Trafficking Task Force and Miami Police Department’s Special Investigations Section had posed as a mother to offered her daughters, ages 13 and 15, for sexual services in exchange for money, arrest reports said.
The five suspects agreed to pay for sex and when they showed up at a hotel for the encounter they were taken into custody by tactical officers, the reports said.
“I knew it, I knew, I knew that it was this,” one suspect kept repeating in Spanish as he was taken into custody, the reports said.
When the suspect’s duffel bag was searched officers found 18 condoms, 7 different lubricants and lotions, adult toys and bondage restraints, among other items, the reports said.
Another suspect said he’d never engaged in that type of activity before and “requested forgiveness,” the reports said.
The five face charges including human trafficking, records showed.
Miami, FL
Miami-Dade deputies detain elderly father who they say shot and killed his son after a domestic dispute
A 75-year-old man has been detained after Miami-Dade deputies say he shot and killed his son after a domestic dispute in Palmetto Bay.
This happened, according to investigators, at approximately 4:49 p.m. in the area of SW 168th Street and 92nd Avenue.
When deputies arrived, they found the elderly man, who had not yet been identified, and immediately detained him for questioning.
Afterwards, they conducted a security sweep and found an adult male, 47, suffering from an apparent gunshot wound.
Deputies say this isn’t the first time they have responded to the home.
“We have responded to this particular residence in the past due to mental health-type incidents,” MDSO PIO Detective Argemis “AC” Colome said.
Deputies say the dispatcher heard a dispute happening over the phone during the 911 call, but it’s unclear what led to the shooting and who was having the mental health crisis.
“The individual who shot was the father, and the male deceased on the scene was the son,” Colome said.
Neighbors reacted to this family tragedy with shock.
“So sad, a little bit concerned cause maybe you’re, you know, you’re staying somewhere, and you don’t know what’s actually happening at the other houses,” Giorgos Kollilekas, who lives in the area, said.
Colome said that there is no danger to the community as this was the result of a domestic dispute.
“There’s always help, please, there’s a lot of hotlines, there’s a lot of numbers. You can call us. At the end of the day, getting help early can mitigate situations like this,” Colome said.
No other information has been released, including the identities of those involved or what caused the dispute.
The investigation is ongoing.
Cain and Kushner are launching a South Florida real estate joint venture, planning a luxury apartment tower in Edgewater for their first project, The Real Deal has learned.
London-based Cain, led by Jonathan Goldstein, and New York-based Kushner, led by Laurent Morali and Nicole Kushner Meyer, plan a 40-story, 364-unit project on Cain’s 1.5-acre site at 614 and 720 Northeast 27th Street in Miami, according to a news release. The property is near the Missoni Baia condo tower that Cain co-developed with Vlad Doronin’s OKO Group.
BDT & MSD Partners provided a $42 million loan for the project, which is in the pre-development phase. Construction is expected to start late next year, the release says.
The Cain-Kushner JV is targeting residential and mixed-use investments and developments in the tri-county region.
“We are looking at all opportunities that we think are sensible,” Goldstein said.
Their South Florida JV comes as the region is experiencing another influx of out-of-staters after the pandemic-era boom, only this time the in-migration is primarily of wealthy individuals and their companies amid the blue-to-red-state migration.
Yet, Cain and Kushner’s plans for Edgewater apartments come as the multifamily market has softened due to hefty deliveries in recent years. A record 18,600 units were completed in 2024, outpacing leasing that year by about 20 percent, CoStar Group data shows. Although construction starts have slowed, last year’s 12,718 unit completions still surpassed total leasing for the year by about 1,000 apartments.
It has led to slower lease-ups, more concessions and a drop in the average asking rents across South Florida.
Developers starting projects now have said demand will catch up by the time they finish their buildings, with many adding that South Florida remains a strong apartment market. Many are betting on luxury rentals, which CoStar’s data showed made up the bulk of leasing in recent years.
“We are big believers in South Florida and big believers in Miami,” Goldstein said.
Cain, backed by Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries, has been investing in South Florida for nearly a decade, with the JV in some ways marking its second chapter in the region.
Cain’s most recent project is the Delano Miami Beach renovation. The hotel, which closed in 2020, is expected to reopen in time for the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix early next month.
Aside from the Missoni Baia condo tower, Cain also partnered with OKO on the Una Residences condo tower in Brickell and the 57-story 830 Brickell office tower. The office building was completed in 2024 fully pre-leased, catching a demand surge during the pandemic-era in-migration of out-of-state companies to Miami. Cain also is an investor in Doronin’s hospitality firm Aman Group.
Kushner has a presence in Miami’s Edgewater, completing the 37-story, 420-unit apartment tower at 2000 Biscayne Boulevard in 2024, with plans for more residential development next-door at 1900 Biscayne Boulevard. It also purchased the 276-unit Hamilton apartment building at 555 Northeast 34th Street from Aimco.
Elsewhere, Kushner plans a 932-unit multifamily development at 300 West Broward Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. It borrowed a $115 million construction loan last year for a luxury 68-unit apartment project in Surfside. And it scored approval in October for a 470-unit rental building and synagogue development near Hollywood’s Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.
Cain scores $4B financing for One Beverly Hills megaproject
Development
South Florida
Natiivo Fort Lauderdale site heads to auction after $26M foreclosure judgment
Development
South Florida
Cain’s Jonathan Goldstein on his next Miami project, the branded condo bandwagon and Brickell’s office market
Read more
-
New York57 minutes agoCommunication Failures Preceded Deadly Crash at LaGuardia, N.T.S.B. Says
-
Detroit, MI1 hour agoPart of Detroit Riverwalk reopens after infrastructure work
-
San Francisco, CA2 hours ago49ers draft picks: Full list of team’s round-by-round selections
-
Dallas, TX2 hours agoCowboys draft picks tracker: Every selection, live grades
-
Miami, FL2 hours ago5 arrested in undercover teen sex trafficking bust in Miami, authorities say
-
Boston, MA2 hours agoBoston police seek missing 12-year-old from Dorchester
-
Denver, CO2 hours agoRoadrunner spotted far from its usual range in Denver surprises birders
-
Seattle, WA2 hours agoTicket Alert: Karol G, Teddy Swims, and More Seattle Events Going On Sale This Week – The Stranger