The Biden administration announced Friday that it will provide protection to hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans living in the United States due to severe weather and heavy rain in the country.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that approximately 234,000 Temporary Protected Status (TPS) beneficiaries in El Salvador will be granted an 18-month extension to register. announced on Friday. The move is the latest last-minute move by President-elect Donald Trump to expand deportation protections for undocumented immigrants and other aliens living in the United States before he returns to office and embarks on a sweeping immigration enforcement agenda. It shows our efforts. (Related article: New York City pours millions of taxpayer dollars into deportation defense lawsuits as immigration crisis cripples city)

“After reviewing the national situation in El Salvador and consulting with interagency partners, we acknowledge that the situation continues due to an environmental disaster that has caused a temporary but significant disruption to the living conditions of the affected people. An 18-month extension of TPS was determined to be warranted in “El Salvador,” the DHS statement said.

“El Salvador’s TPS extension is based on geological and meteorological phenomena that continue to impact areas heavily affected by the 2001 earthquake, including significant storms and heavy rains in 2023 and 2024,” the statement said. continued.

First created by the federal government in 1990, TPS provides certain deportation protections and work eligibility to designated individuals. According to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The government can designate TPS to foreign nationals living in the United States whose home country is experiencing a situation that could jeopardize their return, such as a natural disaster or military conflict.

According to USCIS, 17 countries currently have the TPS designation. Salvadorans who have enjoyed TPS since 2001 were supposed to end their designation on March 9, but the extension announced Friday will allow them to remain in the United States until September 9, 2026. The Biden administration announced TPS for Lebanese citizens. Other designations could be made before President Joe Biden leaves office in late January.

Many Democrats are pleading with Biden to extend TPS before he leaves office, citing the “crucial days” left before the Trump administration cracks down on illegal immigration.

President Trump, who has promised to carry out the largest deportation operation in the country’s history, among a number of other hawkish immigration enforcement proposals, has also publicly expressed interest in rescinding the TPS program once he returns to office. are. The former president tried to end El Salvador’s TPS in 2020, but that effort was held back in court on the last day of his first term.

a Common criticisms A feature of the program is that it is “temporary” in name only, and is constantly being expanded. For example, Salvadorans have enjoyed protected status for more than 20 years.

A long-standing misconception about TPS is that, as CBS host Margaret Brennan tried to suggest during a vice presidential debate and during a “fact check” on Ohio Sen. J.D. It is a form. Several immigration experts who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation acknowledged that while TPS provides some deportation protection and work eligibility, it does not give any individual legal status.

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