Biden Administration Weighs Putting Up Roadblocks to Trumps Deportation Campaign
The Biden administration is considering extending protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants whose status in the United States is set to expire in the first months of the Trump administration, according to U.S.officials and documents viewed by The New York Times.The move would make it harder, though not impossible, for President-elect Donald J.
Trump to deport those people.But it is a sign that the Biden administration could try, in its final weeks, to build some obstacles to what Mr.
Trump has promised will be the biggest deportation in U.S.history.The immigrants in question have Temporary Protected Status, which allows people from dangerous and troubled countries to live and work in the United States legally.
As of this year, there are 1 million immigrants from 17 countries with T.P.S., according to the Congressional Research Service.Mr.Trump tried to get rid of the program during his first term and his advisers have made clear that he will try again as part of a broad crackdown on legal and illegal immigration.
If President Biden were to extend T.P.S., even for a relatively narrow group of people, Mr.Trump would either have to wait for the protections to expire, or cut them off early — something that would almost certainly be challenged in court.The program has come under criticism over the years, in part because T.P.S.
requires regular extensions, generally every 18 months.Immigrants from some countries, including El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, have been eligible for the protection for more than two decades — drawing criticism from Republicans who say the program effectively allows people to say in the United States indefinitely.In September and October, before the presidential election, Secretary of State Antony J.
Blinken sent the Department of Homeland Security a series of letters recommending the 18-month extension of Temporary Protected Status for 300,000 people from Ukraine, Sudan, and Venezuela, which is set to expire in April.We ...