Colombia asks for legal status for its people already in US

By MANUEL RUEDA and ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia wants the Biden administration to grant temporary legal status to its citizens now living in the United States, noting its own efforts to address regional migration by hosting 2 million Venezuelans who fled their homes. Colombia’s ambassador to the United States says the new president, Gustavo Petro, is committed to his predecessor’s generous policies toward Venezuelans but needs help. In a letter to U.S. officials released Tuesday, Ambassador Luis Alberto Murillo Urrutia asked President Joe Biden to grant Colombians already in the U.S. a form of temporary status called Deferred Enforced Departure.