Biden extends temporary protection status for 800,000 migrants from Venezuela and El Salvador ahead of Trump crackdown

The Biden administration has extended temporary protection status for nearly a million migrants from Venezuela and El Salvador ahead of an expected immigration crackdown under President-elect Donald Trump.

The Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday that about 600,000 migrants from Venezuela and over 230,000 migrants from El Salvador would have their protection status extended for another 18 months.

Trump has spoken against TPS policies previously and federal regulations allow for the protections to be ended early.

Trump has promised to commence mass deportations to address the crisis of illegal immigration in the U.S. that has worsened under the Biden administration. Illegal alien advocates oppose mass deportation on the basis that such policies are inhumane and unconstitutional, but many officials say the efforts are necessary to deter more illegal crossings.

The protection status was also extended for 103,000 Ukrainians and 1,900 Sudanese migrants in the U.S.

Although Trump has spoken against TPS policies previously and federal regulations allow for the protections to be ended early, that has never been done before, according to the Associated Press.

The program was created in 1990 by Congress to allow migrants escaping natural disasters or civil strife to obtain work permits for increments of up to 18 months at a time. Venezuelans qualified for protections based on the “severe humanitarian emergency” caused by the communist Maduro regime, and migrants from El Salvador qualified because of “environmental conditions” that included heavy rains and storms.

The migrants that qualify for TPS are not provided a path to citizenship through that program.

Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada applauded the announcement but lamented that the Biden administration didn’t do more for other migrants in the U.S.

“I’m glad to see the Biden administration take actions I was pushing for to protect DACA recipients and extend TPS for El Salvador and Venezuela, which will protect hardworking immigrant communities across the country,” she wrote. “It is unfortunate that President Biden didn’t also re-designate TPS for Nicaragua and Ecuador.”

Immigration became a focal point in the 2024 presidential election after several Republican governors began sending illegal immigrants to Democrat-controlled states that had implemented “sanctuary city” protections for illegal aliens. After the burden on social services increased, many Democrats were forced to admit that illegal immigration was a problem that needed to be addressed federally.

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