Biden extends TPS provision for more than 800,000 immigrants days before Trump assumes presidency

As the United States prepares itself for the comeback of US President-elect Donald Trump,  the current President  Joe Biden and his administration on Friday extended temporary humanitarian protections for about 800,000 immigrants. The initiative would protect 230,000 Salvadorans and 600,000 Venezuelans living in the US from the wrath of the incoming Republican rule. Democrats have been worried after Trump pledged to launch the biggest deportation campaign in American history.

The decision from the outgoing administration came after several immigrant advocates and lawmakers urged the Department of Homeland Security to extend temporary protected status (TPS). The provision is designed to protect immigrants from deportation to countries that are embroiled in any sort of disaster or conflict.

DHS cited environmental conditions in El Salvador – which in recent times has been hit by a series of extreme weather events - as the main reason which is “preventing individuals from returning” to the country. Meanwhile, the federal agency extended protection for Venezuelan individuals from returning” to the country. Interestingly, the announcement came just hours after Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro was sworn in for a third term in Caracas.

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Maduro assumed the office, despite widespread condemnation at both the international and domestic level. Shortly after his oath-taking ceremony, the United States placed a $65 million bounty on the Venezuelan leader’s arrest and the arrests of two close allies on international drug-trafficking charges, The Guardian reported.

It is pertinent to note that about a million immigrants from 17 nations are protected by TPS, including people from Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Sudan and Lebanon. Among them, Salvadorans are one of the largest beneficiaries, having won TPS in 2001 after earthquakes rocked the Central American nation. While TPS gives people the legal authority to stay in the United States it does not provide a long-term path towards American citizenship.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump and his running mate JD Vance suggested that they would scale back the use of TPS and the provision of granting temporary status to immigrants. In his first stint in the White House, the Republican firebrand ended TPS for El Salvador, but the process was held up in court.

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Human rights advocates are describing Biden’s decision to extend TPS provision as a “small victory”. “This extension is just a small victory,” said Felipe Arnoldo Díaz, an activist with the National TPS Alliance. “Our biggest concern is that after El Salvador, there are countries whose TPS are expiring soon and are being left out, like Venezuela, Nepal, Sudan, Nicaragua and Honduras,” he added.

With inputs from the Associated Press.