The Biden administration on Friday issued sweeping extensions of deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of people from Sudan, Ukraine, El Salvador and Venezuela, making it nearly impossible for President-elect Donald J. Trump to immediately strip benefits when he takes office. the office.
Extension of Temporary Protected Status, as the program is called, allows immigrants to stay in the country with work permits and deportation shield for another 18 months from the end of their current protection in the spring. Late last year, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken recommended that protections be expanded in a series of letters.
For decades, Democratic and Republican administrations have chosen to protect citizens of countries that are in turmoil and deemed unsafe to return to. President Biden expanded on who could get the position, as war broke out in Ukraine and instability hit countries like Venezuela and Haiti.
“This designation is based on careful review and interagency collaboration to ensure that those affected by natural disasters and instability are given the protection they need while continuing to contribute meaningfully to our communities,” said Representative Adriano Espaillat of New York, Congressional Hispanic chairman. Caucus.
Mr. Trump has vowed to end the program, at least in some countries. Immigration advocates have been urging the Biden administration to expand it to more of those countries before he takes office.
In his first term, Mr. Trump cut the status to about 400,000 people from El Salvador and other countries, saying that conditions there had changed and that protection was no longer appropriate. The move was challenged in court and did not work, but he is expected to try again in his second term, as part of his promise to deport more people.
According to the Congressional Research Service, more than one million immigrants from countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East had Protected Temporary Status by 2024.
This move makes it legally difficult for Mr. Trump to roll back protections for citizens of these four countries, at least until they expire in 2026.
“Because President Biden has extended protections to people from all these countries, President Trump will not be able to deport these people anytime soon,” said Steve Yale-Loehr, an immigration expert at Cornell Law School.
“Trump cannot ignore what Congress wrote in 1990,” he said.
About 600,000 Venezuelans who are currently without protection will be allowed to renew and stay in the United States until October 2026, and about 232,000 immigrants from El Salvador will be able to do so. More than 100,000 Ukrainians will also be able to stay in the United States until October 2026. About 1,900 people from Sudan will be allowed to renew their status.
This program was signed into law by President George HW Bush to ensure that citizens of other countries who are already in the United States can stay in this country if it is not safe to return to their country due to natural disasters, conflicts or other disturbances. .
On the campaign trail, JD Vance, the vice president-elect, called the program illegitimate when he criticized Haitians who had settled in his hometown of Ohio and benefited from it. Haiti has been plagued by political turmoil and gang violence, and some 200,000 of its citizens are protected from removal under TPS until early 2026.
“We will stop making many grants for temporary protected status,” said Mr. Vance in October.
Critics have argued that temporary protection is repeatedly extended and serves as a de facto means of enabling people to stay in the country permanently, as opposed to its intended purpose of being a temporary solution.
Although this program has become permanent for many immigrants, it also highlights how worried many corners of the world are and the failure of Congress to pass legislation to renew the US immigration system to face the realities of current global migration.
Immigrants from several countries, including El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, have been eligible for protection for more than two decades. Other countries, such as Ethiopia, Lebanon and Syria have been added recently.
If this situation were eliminated, hundreds of thousands of immigrants would immediately become illegal citizens of the United States, unless they left immediately. Many of them have US-born children, businesses and jobs in sectors that rely on immigrant labor such as construction, tourism and health care.
In cities like Denver, the temporary situation has allowed thousands of Venezuelans, who arrived two years ago from the southern border on buses provided by the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, to work legally and integrate into the economy.
Mike Johnston, the city’s mayor, said he applauds the Biden administration’s announcement to add the position.
“In Denver, people with Protected Temporary Status work critical jobs, contribute to our economy and become valuable members of our communities,” he said.
Gonzalo Roa, 43, a Venezuelan who benefited from Columbus, Ohio, said he was worried about the end of the program.
“It is good news that it is being renewed,” said Mr. Roa, who works at a car dealership and owns a small restaurant with his wife.
Regardless of the situation, Mr. Roa said, she will lose her job at the dealership and her two Venezuelan-born children will not be eligible for college scholarships and other benefits that require legal status.
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