Biden extends TPS for nearly 835,000 migrants from Venezuela, El Salvador

3 hrs ago

Listen

Karah Rucker Anchor

By Karah Rucker (Anchor), Roey Hadar (Producer), Harry Fogle (Video Editor)

Just 10 days before leaving office, President Joe Biden is extending Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, to more than 800,000 immigrants from Latin America who are currently in the United States legally. Biden’s move complicates President-elect Donald Trump’s signature plan to significantly cut immigration into the U.S. while also executing what he calls the largest deportation effort in the country’s history.

Bias Distribution Powered by Ground News™

TPS is a program that allows immigrants to stay in the U.S. legally for a set period. It doesn’t give them a path to citizenship, and the president can renew it.

Download the SAN app today to stay up-to-date with Unbiased. Straight Facts™.

Point phone camera here

The latest decision allows 600,000 people from Venezuela and 230,000 from El Salvador to stay in the U.S. for 18 months.

Normally, the program takes the status of a migrant’s home country into account. In Venezuela, socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro took office for a third term as president Friday, Jan. 10, after an election the current State Department and Trump’s Secretary of State nominee, Marco Rubio, both said they considered to be illegitimate.

While the Biden administration extended the temporary protective status, they did not expand the program to protect newer arrivals who are in the country illegally.

Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance have both criticized the TPS program.

In his first term, Trump worked to end TPS for migrants from multiple countries but faced difficulties after migrants brought lawsuits challenging his plan.

Ending TPS will likely factor into Trump’s plans to drastically cut immigration an-d launch a mass deportation of migrants in the country illegally.

Although Biden issued an 18-month extension, the Department of Homeland Security can revoke TPS if they give 60 days’ notice.

Tags: Department of Homeland Security, Deportation, Donald Trump, El Salvador, Immigrant, Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Joe Biden, Marco Rubio, Nicolas Maduro, State Department, Venezuela

KARAH RUCKER: Just 10 days before leaving office, President Joe Biden is extending Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, to more than 800,000 immigrants from Latin America who are currently in the United States legally.

TPS is a program that allows immigrants to stay in the U.S. legally for a set period of time. It doesn’t give them a path to citizenship and its renewal is up to the president.

The latest decision allows 600,000 people in the United States from Venezuela and 230,000 from El Salvador to stay in the U.S. for 18 months.

Normally, the program takes the status of the home countries of migrants into account. In Venezuela, socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro took office for a third term as president Friday, after an election the current State Department and President-elect Trump’s Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio both said they considered to be illegitimate.

While the Biden administration extended the temporary protective status, they did not expand the program to protect newer arrivals here illegally.

President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance have both heavily criticized the TPS program – with Trump saying as recently as last October that he would revoke protective status for Haitian migrants in Ohio.

INTERVIEWER: “You would revoke the temporary protected status?”

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: “Absolutely I’d revoke it and I’d bring them back to their country.”

KARAH RUCKER: In his first term, President Trump worked to end TPS for migrants from multiple countries, but ran into difficulties after migrants brought lawsuits challenging his plan.

While President Biden issued an 18-month extension, the Department of Homeland Security can revoke TPS if they give 60 days’ notice.

For Straight Arrow News, I’m Karah Rucker.

And for all the latest updates on this and other top stories, download the Straight Arrow News app or visit SAN.com.