Biden admin announces sweeping deportation shield for nearly 1M migrants

The Biden administration announced Friday that nearly 1 million migrants from Sudan, Ukraine, El Salvador and Venezuela — a breeding ground for members of the vicious gang Tren de Aragua — will be able to stay in the US for the next year-and-a-half, dealing a blow to President-elect Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda.The Department of Homeland Security extended by another 18 months Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for roughly 1,900 Sudanese immigrants, 103,700 Ukrainian immigrants, 232,000 Salvadoran immigrants and 600,000 Venezuelans.The program will now allow up to 937,600 eligible foreign nationals to remain in the US into 2026, though the precise end date varies by country.The protection had initially been scheduled to terminate later this year.Stemming from a law signed by President George H.W.

Bush in 1990, TPS provides work permits for migrants from up to 16 countries who want to stay rather in America than return to home nations marred by armed conflict, political instability or other threatening conditions.Trump, 78, scrapped the program during his first term and expelled around 400,000 migrants before running into legal challenges — and vowed on the 2024 campaign trail to do it again if re-elected.“We’re going to stop doing mass grants of Temporary Protected Status,” Vice President-elect JD Vance vowed in October.The Biden administration’s move is likely to set up a contentious and lengthy court battle should Trump and Vance try to follow through on their campaign pledge.“Trump can’t ignore what Congress wrote into law in 1990,” Cornell Law School professor Steve Yale-Loehr told the New York Times, suggesting that only the legislative branch can alter or undo the TPS program permanently.Only those already enrolled and who remain eligible can reapply to keep working and residing in America.Immigrants from Sudan and Ukraine “with or without lawful immigration status” must have been “continuously residing” in the US �...