President Biden The United States is facing mounting pressure from Senate Democrats to take a last-minute move to expand protections from deportation for some illegal immigrants, before the incoming Trump administration launches mass deportations next year.
Sens. Katherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Ben Ray Luján, D-Calif., and Alex Padilla, D-Calif., held a news conference this week with immigration activists to renew calls to urge Biden to take steps on behalf of undocumented immigrants. Currently protected by Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Dhaka).
TPS allows citizens living in the United States who are from countries that are unsafe for them to return to, to obtain work permits and protect them from deportation. DACA is an Obama-era executive order issued in 2012 that allows some undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children to remain in the country without deportation.
Trump claims GOP is 'very open' to keeping 'Dreamers' in US, fires at 'very difficult' Democrats
Sen. Katherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, holds a Border Patrol challenge coin as she talks about Republicans abandoning the bipartisan border deal during the Senate Democrats' news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, February 6, 2024. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
It is expected that the next Trump administration will allow the temporary protection regime to expire in many countries, as it attempted to do in the first administration. Republicans have strongly criticized the use of TPS, accusing the Biden administration of abusing the tool. Draft law submitted by Senator-elect Jim Banks It would limit TPS designations by requiring Congress to approve them for 12 months, and require additional action by Congress to extend them.
However, Trump expressed his willingness to do so Make a deal With Democrats to allow DACA recipients to remain in the United States
“I will work with the Democrats on a plan, and if we can come up with a plan, but the Democrats have made it very difficult to do anything,” Trump said this week. “Republicans are very open to the Dreamers. Dreamers, we’re talking. They were brought to this country many years ago.” “Some of them are no longer young, and in many cases, they have become successful.”
But Trump's campaign was marked by a promise to launch a mass deportation campaign, and with that looming, Democrats want Biden to act before that promise takes effect.
“The president has the legal authority to act to give these Long-term immigrant communities “Certainty and he has to use it,” Cortez Masto said at the press conference.
“We know the next administration will try to implement chaotic immigration policies that tear our families apart,” she said.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the latest developments in Syria from the Roosevelt Room of the White House on December 8, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Pete Marovich/Getty Images)
She was also skeptical of Trump's promise to protect the DACA administration, given what she said were his actions in Trump's first administration: “We gave him a bipartisan bill to protect our Dreamers — he killed it.”
“President Biden, you have the opportunity to advance your economic legacy as well as your humanitarian legacy, and use this moment to protect migrants in the long term and strengthen our country’s economy,” Padilla said.
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The news conference came days after a letter from Democrats led by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., that expressed “deep concern about the threat the incoming administration poses to immigrants in our communities.”
“We write now because the window to secure and finalize your administration's policies is rapidly closing. 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 migrant families.” They said.
So far, there are no indications that Biden is planning any such action on DACA. TPS extensions and redesigns are typically announced by the Department of Homeland Security. The White House did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
The Trump administration has pushed unsuccessfully to end the DACA program, and it has been blocked by the Supreme Court. The matter remains in court With a lawsuit A challenge to the legality of the policy is under review in the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
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In 2019, Trump proposed three additional years of protections for DACA recipients and others in exchange for money to build a wall along the southern border. Democrats rejected that deal and described it as “hostage taking.”
