Biden issues sweeping deportation protections before Trump takes office

Washinton: The Biden administration Friday issued sweeping extensions of deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of people from Sudan, Ukraine and Venezuela in a move that makes it almost impossible for President-elect Donald Trump to swiftly strip the benefit when he takes office.

The extension of Temporary Protected Status, as the program is called, allows the immigrants to remain in the country with work permits and a shield from deportation for another 18 months from the expiration of their current protection in the spring. Late last year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken recommended the protections be extended in a series of letters.

For decades, Democratic and Republican administrations have designated the protection for citizens of countries that are in upheaval and deemed unsafe to return to. Biden has expanded who could receive the status, as war erupted in Ukraine and instability gripped countries such as Venezuela and Haiti.

"These designations are rooted in careful review and interagency collaboration to ensure those affected by environmental disasters and instability are given the protections they need while continuing to contribute meaningfully to our communities," Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, said in a statement.

Trump vowed to end the program, at least for certain countries. Immigrant advocates had been urging the Biden administration to extend it for many of those countries before he takes office.

In his first term, Trump terminated the status for about 400,000 people from El Salvador and other countries, arguing that conditions there had changed and that the protection was no longer warranted. The move was challenged in court and did not take effect, but he is expected to try again during his second term, as part of his pledge to conduct mass deportations.

According to the Congressional Research Service, more than 1 million migrants from countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East had Temporary Protected Status as of 2024.

The move makes it legally difficult for Trump to roll back the protections for citizens of the four countries, at least until they expire sometime in 2026.

"Because President Biden has extended protection for the nationals of all these countries, President Trump will be unable to deport these individuals anytime soon, " said Steve Yale-Loehr, an immigration scholar at Cornell Law School.

"Trump can't ignore what Congress wrote into law in 1990," he said.

About 600,000 Venezuelans who currently have the protection will be allowed to renew and remain in the United States until October 2026, and approximately 232,000 immigrants from El Salvador will be able to do so. More than 100,000 Ukrainians will be able to remain in the United States until October 2026. About 1,900 people from Sudan will also be allowed to renew their status.

The program was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush to ensure that foreign citizens already in the United States can remain in the country if it is not safe for them to return to their home country because of a natural disaster, armed conflict or other upheaval.

On the campaign trail, JD Vance, now the vice president-elect, called the program illegal when he criticized Haitians who had settled in his home state of Ohio and benefited from it. Haiti has been experiencing political turmoil and gang violence, and about 200,000 of its citizens are protected from removal under Temporary Protected Status until early 2026.

"We're going to stop doing mass grants of Temporary Protected Status," Vance said in October.

Critics have argued that the temporary protections are extended repeatedly and serve as a de facto means to enable people to stay in the country indefinitely, contrary to its intention of being a short-term solution.

Although the program has become all but permanent for many immigrants, it also highlights how troubled many corners of the world are and the failure of Congress to pass legislation to update the US immigration system to the realities of contemporary global migration.

Immigrants from several countries, including El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, have been eligible for the protection for more than two decades. Other countries, such as Ethiopia, Lebanon and Syria, were added more recently.

If the status were eliminated, hundreds of thousands of immigrants would immediately become unlawful residents of the United States, unless they immediately departed. Many of them have US-born children, businesses and jobs in sectors that rely on immigrant labor such as construction, hospitality and health care.

In cities such as Denver, temporary status has allowed thousands of Venezuelans, who arrived in the past two years from the southern border on buses provided by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, to legally work there and integrate into the economy.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said he applauded the Biden administration's announcement to extend the designation.

"In Denver, folks with Temporary Protected Status are working critical jobs, contributing to our economy and becoming integral members of our communities," he said.

Gonzalo Roa, 43, a Venezuelan who is a beneficiary, said he had been anxious about the fate of the program.

"It is great news that it's being renewed," said Roa, who works at a car dealership and runs a small restaurant with his wife.

Without the status, Roa said, he would lose his job at the dealership, and his two Venezuelan-born children would not be eligible for college scholarships and other benefits that require legal status.