WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration is ending protections that shielded roughly 350,000 Venezuelans from deportation, leaving them with two months before they lose their right to work in the U.S.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s order affects 348,202 Venezuelans living in the U.S. with Temporary Protected Status slated to expire in April. That’s about half of the approximately 600,000 who have the protection. The remaining protections are set to expire at the end of September.

The termination notice will be published Wednesday and go into effect 60 days later.

It’s among the latest Trump administration actions targeting the immigration system, as officials work to make good on promises of cracking down on people illegally living in the country and to carry out the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history.

Congress created TPS in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife, giving people authorization to work in increments of up to 18 months. About 1 million immigrants from 17 countries are protected by TPS. Venezuelans are one of the largest beneficiaries.

In the decision, the Department of Homeland Security said conditions had improved enough in Venezuela to warrant ending protective status. Noem also said that the TPS designation had been used to allow people who otherwise didn’t have an immigration pathway to settle in America.

“The sheer numbers have resulted in associated difficulties in local communities,” the secretary’s decision says. She also cited members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as among those coming to the U.S.

The gang originated in a lawless prison in the central state of Aragua more than a decade ago but has expanded in recent years as millions of desperate Venezuelans fled President Nicolás Maduro’s rule and migrated to other parts of Latin America or the U.S.

During his campaign, Trump repeatedly hammered at dangers posed by the gang, sparking criticism that he was painting all immigrants as criminals.

The TPS designation gives people legal authority to be in the country but doesn’t provide a long-term path to citizenship. They are reliant on the government renewing their status when it expires. Critics have said that over time, renewal of status becomes automatic, regardless of what’s happening in the person’s home country.

In the waning days of the Biden administration, Noem’s predecessor, Alejandro Mayorkas, extended the protections for Venezuelans until October 2026.

But Noem revoked that decision.

The U.S. doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Venezuela, limiting deportation options. But Trump administration says it has made securing deportations to Venezuela a top goal. On Friday, his envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, traveled to Venezuela and met with Maduro. Six American prisoners there were released following the meeting.

After the visit Trump, wrote on his social media site Truth Social that Venezuela agreed to receive back their citizens, potentially breaking the deportation logjam.

Venezuela’s government has so far not confirmed that they will take back their citizens.

Trump took similar steps during his first term when he tried to end Temporary Protected Status for people from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan. But immigration advocacy groups sued, keeping the restrictions from being pulled.

The news of the termination notice was first reported by The New York Times.

Rebecca Santana, The Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow is preparing to enter the Democratic primary for an open U.S. Senate seat in the state, multiple people familiar with her plans confirmed on Monday.

First elected to the state Legislature in 2018, McMorrow’s profile surged after her viral 2022 speech on the floor of the Michigan Senate, hailed as a model for countering Republican attacks. Her name quickly emerged as a top contender for the 2026 Senate race after Democratic Sen. Gary Peters announced his retirement last week.

Two people who have spoken with McMorrow confirmed her intention to enter the 2026 Democratic primary for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat. The people insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.

A spokesperson for McMorrow said in a statement sent to The Associated Press that McMorrow is “taking a very close look at how she can have the greatest impact for Michiganders.”

McMorrow would become the first Democrat to enter the race to replace Peters, in what will be a closely watched contest next year. Michigan would be a key seat to hold for Democrats while Republicans see an opportunity to expand their 53-47 majority in a state that Donald Trump won in last year’s presidential election.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who moved to Michigan in 2022, is the best-known potential candidate. Buttigieg has ruled out running for governor and is focused on a potential run for the Senate, according to a person familiar with his plans. McMorrow’s entry could complicate things for Buttigieg, who would need to compete in the Democratic primary with another high-profile candidate with stronger ties to Michigan.

Peters’ retirement announcement threw a major curveball into Michigan politics and prompted many candidates, including McMorrow, to initially consider running for either governor or the U.S. Senate. Second-term Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is term-limited.

On the Republican side, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, who narrowly lost to Democrat Elissa Slotkin in the state’s 2024 Senate race, is also expected to soon announce another candidacy.

McMorrow has gained a large following since her fiery floor speech in 2022 criticizing a Republican lawmaker who attacked her in a campaign fundraising email and accused her of “grooming” children for supporting LGBTQ+ rights.

“I am a straight, white, Christian, married, suburban mom” who wants “every kid to feel seen, heard and supported — not marginalized and targeted because they are not straight, white and Christian,” McMorrow said.

The state senator had another attention-grabbing moment online in 2024, when she took an oversized copy of Project 2025, which was created by the Heritage Foundation as a handbook for the next Republican administration, to the DNC in Chicago. Project 2025, drafted by longtime allies and former officials of the first Trump administration, outlines a dramatic expansion of presidential power and a plan to fire as many as 50,000 government workers to replace them with presidential loyalists.

Isabella Volmert And Joey Cappelletti, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday indicated that he wants to reach an agreement with Ukraine to gain access to the country’s rare earth materials as a condition for continuing U.S. support for its war against Russia.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump complained that the U.S. had sent more in military and economic assistance to Ukraine than its European partners, adding, “We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth and other things.”

Trump suggested that he’s received word from the Ukrainian government that they’d be willing to make a deal to give the U.S. access to the elements critical to the modern high-tech economy.

“I want to have security of rare earth,” Trump added. “We’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars. They have great rare earth. And I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do it.”

Trump, who had previously said he’d bring about a rapid end to the war, said talks are ongoing to bring the conflict to a close.

“We made a lot of progress on Russia, Ukraine,” Trump said. “We’ll see what happens. We’re going to stop that ridiculous war.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Associated Press on Saturday that any negotiations between the U.S. and Russia but without his country were unacceptable.

“They may have their own relations, but talking about Ukraine without us — it is dangerous for everyone,” Zelenskyy said.

He said his team has been in contact with the Trump administration, but those discussions are at a “general level,” and he believes in-person meetings will take place soon to develop more detailed agreements.

“We need to work more on this,” Zelenskyy said.

Zeke Miller, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order directing the U.S. to take steps to start developing a government-owned investment fund that he said could be used to profit off of TikTok if he’s successful at finding it an American buyer.

Trump signed an order on his first day office to grant the Chinese-owned TikTok until early April to find a domestic partner or buyer, but he’s said he’s looking for the U.S. to take a 50% stake in the massive social media platform. He said Monday in the Oval Office that TikTok was an example of what he could put in a new U.S. sovereign wealth fund.

“We might put that in the sovereign wealth fund, whatever we make or we do a partnership with very wealthy people, a lot of options,” he said of TikTok. “But we could put that as an example in the fund. We have a lot of other things that we could put in the fund.”

Trump noted many other nations have such investment funds and predicted that the U.S. could eventually top Saudi Arabia’s fund size. “Eventually we’ll catch it,” he promised.

Trump put Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in charge of laying the groundwork for creating a the fund, which would likely require congressional approval.

Former President Joe Biden’s administration had studied the possibility of creating a sovereign wealth fund for national security investments, but the idea did not yield any concrete action before he left office last month.

Bessent said the administration’s goal was to have the fund open within the next 12 months, and Lutnick said another use of the fund could have been for the government to take an profit-earning stake in vaccine manufacturers.

“The extraordinary size and scale of the U.S government and the business it does with companies should create value for American citizens,” Lutnick told reporters.

Zeke Miller, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dozens of senior officials put on leave. Thousands of contractors laid off. A freeze put on billions of dollars in humanitarian assistance to other countries.

Over the last two weeks, President Donald Trump’s administration has made significant changes to the U.S. agency charged with delivering humanitarian assistance overseas that has left aid organizations agonizing over whether they can continue with programs such as nutritional assistance for malnourished infants and children.

Then-President John F. Kennedy established the U.S. Agency for International Development, known as USAID, during the Cold War. In the decades since, Republicans and Democrats have fought over the agency and its funding.

Here’s a look at USAID, its history and the changes made since Trump took office.

What is USAID?

Kennedy created USAID at the height of the United States’ Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union. He wanted a more efficient way to counter Soviet influence abroad through foreign assistance and saw the State Department as frustratingly bureaucratic at doing that.

Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act and Kennedy set up USAID as an independent agency in 1961.

USAID has outlived the Soviet Union, which fell in 1991. Today, supporters of USAID argue that U.S. assistance in countries counters Russian and Chinese influence. China has its own “belt and road” foreign aid program worldwide operating in many countries that the U.S. also wants as partners.

Critics say the programs are wasteful and promote a liberal agenda.

What’s going on with USAID?

On his first day in office Jan. 20, Trump implemented a 90-day freeze on foreign assistance. Four days later, Peter Marocco — a returning political appointee from Trump’s first term — drafted a tougher than expected interpretation of that order, a move that shut down thousands of programs around the world and forced furloughs and layoffs.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has since moved to keep more kinds of strictly life-saving emergency programs going during the freeze. But confusion over what programs are exempted from the Trump administration’s stop-work orders — and fear of losing U.S. aid permanently — is still freezing aid and development work globally.

Dozens of senior officials have been put on leave, thousands of contractors laid off, and employees were told Monday not to enter its Washington headquarters. And USAID’s website and its account on the X platform have been taken down.

It’s part of a Trump administration crackdown that’s hitting across the federal government and its programs. But USAID and foreign aid are among those hit the hardest.

Rubio said the administration’s aim was a program-by-program review of which projects make “America safer, stronger or more prosperous.”

The decision to shut down U.S.-funded programs during the 90-day review meant the U.S. was “getting a lot more cooperation” from recipients of humanitarian, development and security assistance, Rubio said.

What do critics of USAID say?

Republicans typically push to give the State Department — which provides overall foreign policy guidance to USAID — more control of its policy and funds. Democrats typically promote USAID autonomy and authority.

Funding for United Nations agencies, including peacekeeping, human rights and refugee agencies, have been traditional targets for Republican administrations to cut. The first Trump administration moved to reduce foreign aid spending, suspending payments to various U.N. agencies, including the U.N. Population Fund and funding to the Palestinian Authority.

In Trump’s first term, the U.S. pulled out of the U.N. Human Rights Council and its financial obligations to that body. The U.S. is also barred from funding the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, under a bill signed by then-President Joe Biden last March.

Why is Elon Musk going after USAID?

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, has launched a sweeping effort empowered by Trump to fire government workers and cut trillions in government spending. USAID is one of his prime targets. Musk alleges USAID funding been used to launch deadly programs and called it a “criminal organization.”

What is being affected by the USAID freeze?

Sub-Saharan Africa could suffer more than any other region during the aid pause. The U.S. gave the region more than $6.5 billion in humanitarian assistance last year. HIV patients in Africa arriving at clinics funded by an acclaimed U.S. program that helped rein in the global AIDS epidemic of the 1980s found locked doors.

There are also already ramifications in Latin America. In Mexico, a busy shelter for migrants in southern Mexico has been left without a doctor. A program to provide mental health support for LGBTQ+ youth fleeing Venezuela was disbanded.

In Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Guatemala, so-called “Safe Mobility Offices” where migrants can apply to enter the U.S. legally have shuttered.

The aid community is struggling to get the full picture—how many thousands of programs have shut down and how many thousands of workers were furloughed and laid off under the freeze?

How much does the U.S. spend on foreign aid?

In all, the U.S. spent about roughly $40 billion in foreign aid in the 2023 fiscal year, according to a report published last month by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

The U.S. is the largest provider of humanitarian assistance globally, although some other countries spend a bigger share of their budget on it. Foreign assistance overall amounts to less than 1% of the U.S. budget.

Could Trump dissolve USAID on his own?

Democrats say presidents lack the constitutional authority to eliminate USAID. But it’s not clear what would stop him from trying.

A mini-version of that legal battle played out in Trump’s first term, when he tried to cut the budget for foreign operations by a third.

When Congress refused, the Trump administration used freezes and other tactics to cut the flow of funds already appropriated by Congress for the foreign programs. The General Accounting Office later ruled that violated a law known as the Impoundment Control Act.

It’s a law we may be hearing more of.

“Live by executive order, die by executive order,” Musk said on X Saturday in reference to USAID.

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Kinnard reported from Houston. Knickmeyer can be reached at https://x.com/EllenKnickmeyer and Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.

Ellen Knickmeyer And Meg Kinnard, The Associated Press