Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas renewed temporary protected status — an amnesty from deportation — for hundreds of thousands of migrants on Friday, rushing to lock in protection before the next Trump administration takes office.
Mr. Mayorkas gave the reprieves to people from Venezuela, El Salvador, Ukraine and Sudan, covering about 940,000 foreign nationals already living here in the U.S.
The status gives them 18 months of exemption from deportation and legal work permits to compete for jobs in that time. That extends well into the Trump administration, hindering any plans to try to reel in the expansive grants of leniency.
Immigrant rights advocates hailed the moves as critical protection.
“This decision provides relief and stability to hundreds of thousands of individuals who cannot safely return to their home countries due to ongoing environmental and political crises,” said Rep. Adriano Espaillat, New York Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Critics said the moves amount to political jabs at President-elect Donald Trump.
“It’s a deliberate attempt to hobble the Trump administration,” said Matthew O’Brien, who served as an immigration judge and official at several Department of Homeland Security agencies and is now with the Immigration Reform Law Institute.
TPS is supposed to be a short-term bridge for countries facing natural disasters, epidemics, war or political unrest. It means citizens of those countries aren’t forced to return home to chaos, and it gives the countries space to recover without having to see an influx of people.
But the temporary aspect has come to be meaningless.
DHS said the renewed status covers about 600,000 Venezuelans, 1,900 Sudanese, 103,700 Ukrainians and 234,000 Salvadorans.
Those Salvadorans have been living in the U.S. since at least 2001 — 24 years at this point — which is when a large earthquake struck.
In the intervening years, the status has been regularly renewed every 18 months by succeeding administrations. President Trump tried to break the automatic renewals and end TPS but was blocked by federal court rulings.
President Biden has followed the Bush and Obama pattern with more renewals.
Mr. Mayorkas, in his defense of the move, said “heavy rainfall” in 2023 and 2024 hit the same areas that were affected by the earthquake more than two decades earlier.
Mr. O’Brien called that justification “absurd.”
He said the result of the moves is to entrench a large group of migrants who lack a legal visa to remain in the U.S. under the normal immigration system, but who then become the seed for still more immigration.
The 600,000 Venezuelans, for example, can apply to sponsor fellow Venezuelans under Mr. Biden’s legally iffy “parole” programs that let some migrants apply for entry even though they don’t qualify for a visa.
Those here on TPS can also attempt to marry and gain status, and any children born here are automatically citizens, creating another defense against deportation.
“They’re creating a huge base for people to get a foothold in the U.S., try and get some kind of permanent immigration status, and then begin to petition for their family members to come here,” Mr. O’Brien said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.