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Biden grants deportation protection to 900,000 immigrants just before Trump’s inauguration
President Joe Biden’s administration extended Temporary Protected Status for 600,000 Venezuelans and more than 200,000 Salvadorans in the US just 10 days before Donald Trump takes office vowing a crackdown on immigration.
The extension enables the migrants to remain 18 more months, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday, citing the “inhumane” government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was sworn in the same day for his third six-year term. DHS also issued protections for about 100,000 people from Ukraine and 1,900 from Sudan.
The decision to extend TPS, which shields migrants from deportation and allows them to work legally in the US, fulfills a Biden pledge to safeguard people who he and others view as among the most vulnerable. The move also preempts any efforts by the incoming Trump administration to manage and potentially end protections for some of those same groups.
TPS has become a target of Republicans who have argued that it has been granted too liberally to too many foreigners, and acts as a draw to migrants to come to the US illegally. The program has been expanded aggressively under Biden
Border Crossings
In the last several years, Venezuelans have ranked among the largest groups of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border without authorization to ask for asylum. The TPS program for the South American country initially enjoyed broad support.
About 1 million people from 17 countries are living in the US under TPS.
Trump has repeatedly said he would revoke TPS protections and tried to end the program for multiple countries during his first administration. Speaking in October about Haitians living in Ohio, he told NewsNation, “absolutely I’d revoke it, and I’d bring them back to their country.”
Haitian migrants became a flashpoint and targets of disinformation during the election after Trump and others made baseless allegations that immigrants were eating pets. Protections for Haitian migrants are set to expire in February 2026.
Salvadoran Extensions
But for some nations, including El Salvador, the protections have been extended for decades under multiple administrations.
El Salvador was first included in the program in early 2001 after a series of earthquakes. More than 230,000 Salvadorans are protected under the program.
DHS said the latest renewal was justified because of “continued conditions from environmental disasters that resulted in a substantial, but temporary, disruption of living conditions in the affected areas of El Salvador.” It cited significant storms and heavy rainfall in 2023 and 2024.
Maduro was sworn in Friday amid international condemnation of a sham election and a brutal crackdown on dissent. The US government is among many that have accused him of illegally taking power after losing the election.
HINDUSTAN TIMES