Several Senate Democrats implored President Biden earlier this month to take action to preserve a controversial immigration program that President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to wind down when he takes office.
“As Senators who represent diverse states across our nation and who collectively represent millions of immigrant families, we write to express our deep concern about the threat the incoming administration poses to immigrants in our communities,” Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IIl), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) wrote in a Dec. 10 letter to Biden.
The senators argue that Trump’s pledge to embark on a mass deportation initiative will “jeopardize the safety and security of millions of mixed-status families, sow deep distrust and fear in the communities we represent, and destabilize the U.S. economy” and demand that Biden, 82, act fast to further entrench programs that allowed record numbers of migrants to flow into the US under his administration.
The Temporary Status Program was established in the 1990s. Getty Images
The Biden administration re-designated a number of countries for TPS, including Haiti, Venezuela, and Afghanistan. Getty Images“We write now because the window to secure and finalize your administration’s policies is closing rapidly,” the lawmakers wrote. “We urge you to act decisively between now and the inauguration of the President-elect to complete the important work of the past four years and protect immigrant families.”
The senators argue that in its final days, the Biden administration should prioritize redesignating and extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for “all eligible countries and consider providing Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) as appropriate.”
TPS and DED grant migrants for several designated countries up to 18 months of amnesty from deportation as well as access to work permits if they’re in the US illegally.
The first Trump administration looked to wind down TPS for several countries. Gregory P. MangoThe programs are intended to be used in cases where suffering and unrest is so great in a migrant’s home country that it would be unsafe to deport them back.
The Biden administration has designated or re-designated several countries for TPS since 2021, including Venezuela, Haiti and Afghanistan.
Democrats have been urging Biden to extend protections under TPS. Robert MeceaThe 17-country list of TPS-designated nations also includes: Myanmar, Cameroon, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Lebanon, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen.
The Democratic senators contend that “worsening crises in countries across the world” underscore “the need for TPS.”
The lawmakers also suggest that the Biden administration should add the Democratic Republic of Congo to the list of TPS nations.
“We urge your administration to offer vital protections via TPS for eligible countries or parts of countries, providing relief from deportation while allowing these individuals to continue working and contributing to our economy,” the senators ask Biden. “Where TPS is not an option, we strongly urge the administration to protect qualified vulnerable noncitizens through DED.”
During his first term, Trump sought to remove the TPS designations of several countries, such as Haiti, but a series of lawsuits thwarted him from doing so.
TPS became a hot-button issue on the 2024 campaign trail amid reports that Haitian migrants were overwhelming towns like Springfield, Ohio, leading Trump to pledge to revoke TPS for Haiti.
“It’s been overrun,” the president-elect said of the Ohio town in an October interview with NewsNation.
“You can’t do that to people. I’d revoke [TPS], and I’d bring [the migrants] back to their country.”
