Biden extends deportation relief for 900,000 immigrants from Venezuela, El Salvador, Ukraine, and Sudan

(Patria) - President Joe Biden's administration on Friday renewed deportation relief currently covering 900,000 immigrants from Venezuela, El Salvador, Ukraine, and Sudan.

This move would delay any attempts by newly elected President Donald Trump to revoke this protection, Reuters reports.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) extended registration in the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program for these nations, granting these immigrants a deportation deferral and access to work permits for an additional eighteen months.

Biden, a Democrat, has significantly increased the number of immigrants eligible for TPS since taking office in 2021. The status, available to people whose home country has experienced a natural disaster, armed conflict, or other extraordinary event, now covers over a million people from seventeen nations.

Trump, a Republican who will return to the White House on January 20, sought to terminate most TPS registrations during his term from 2017 to 2021, but U.S. courts prevented him from doing so.

Trump won another term promising strict immigration controls and is expected to again attempt to revoke most TPS protections.

The Biden administration's moves on Friday were halted by more comprehensive demands from activists and some Democrats to grant TPS to recently arrived immigrants and those from other nations.

Todd Schulte, president of the advocacy group FWD.us, said the extensions will allow hundreds of thousands of people to continue to "contribute to their communities, support their families, and strengthen the economy," but he also urged Biden to extend TPS to Nicaragua and other nations.

Around 600,000 Venezuelans are eligible for TPS, making them the largest population in the program.

The Biden administration, which first granted TPS to Venezuelans in 2021, cited the high level of crime in Venezuela linked to political and economic instability under President Nicolas Maduro, who was sworn in for his third term on Friday.