Dems Urge Biden to Extend Controversial Immigrant Program

A controversial immigration program that has been in place for decades has recently become a hot-button issue as it looks likely to be axed or severely limited by the incoming Trump administration, and Democrats are calling on President Biden to take moves to preserve it.

Temporary Protected Status is a program established in the 1990s that allows the government to designate countries unsafe for nationals to return to, granting nationals already in the U.S. work permits and protection from deportation if they are here illegally or if their legal status expires.

The Biden administration designated or re-designated a number of countries for TPS, including Venezuela, Haiti, Afghanistan and others, allowing hundreds of thousands of nationals to remain in the U.S. as a result. There are currently 17 countries designated for TPS.

The first Trump administration sought to wind down TPS for a number of countries, but it was caught up in a yearslong court battle launched by left-wing civil rights groups on the matter.

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{snip} Democrats have been urging Biden to extend protections under TPS and other programs to blunt the impact of the incoming administration.

“We write now because the window to secure and finalize your administration’s policies is closing rapidly,” Democrats led by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told Biden in a letter this month.

“We urge you to act decisively between now and the inauguration of the President-elect to complete the important work of the past four years and protect immigrant families.”

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