The Biden administration on Friday announced it would extend the temporary legal status of nearly 1 million immigrants from El Salvador, Sudan, Ukraine and Venezuela, utilizing a program that is expected to be curtailed by the incoming Trump administration.
The announcement will allow Salvadoran, Sudanese, Ukrainian and Venezuelan immigrants who currently have Temporary Protected Status to renew their work permits and deportation protections under the policy, which offers a legal reprieve to foreigners from countries beset by war, natural disasters or other emergencies that make deportations unsafe.
The decision is set to benefit roughly 234,000 Salvadorans; 1,900 Sudanese; 104,000 Ukrainians; and 600,000 Venezuelans, according to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the programs. The TPS program for El Salvador will be extended through March 2026, while the designations for Sudan, Ukraine and Venezuela will be extended through October 2026.
Friday’s move is notable since TPS is expected to be scaled back by the President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to dismantle Biden administration immigration policy, enact tougher immigration rules and launch a mass deportation campaign. TPS designations can be revoked by the DHS secretary, as long as the government provides a 60-day notice.
Trump and incoming Vice President JD Vance have both signaled their opposition to TPS, which Republican lawmakers and immigration hawks have long argued has been improperly extended, despite its temporary nature. During Trump’s first administration, the government tried to end TPS protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants, though its efforts were stalled by legal challenges.
While it announced the TPS extensions, the Biden administration on Friday declined to make new arrivals eligible for the temporary status, despite calls from progressive activists who say the move would make it harder for Trump to carry out his promised mass deportations. Redesignating the TPS program for Venezuela, for example, would make hundreds of thousands of additional migrants eligible for the initiative.
The Biden administration has also faced pressure from advocates to allow hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguan immigrants to apply for TPS ahead of Trump’s inauguration. But officials are leaning against it, two people familiar with internal deliberations told CBS News, in part due to concerns about the move appearing like a politically motivated effort to hinder the incoming administration.
Friday’s move affects a diverse population of immigrants, with different legal circumstances.
Salvadorans with TPS have generally been in the U.S. for over two decades, since 2001, when immigrants from El Salvador were first granted the temporary status following devastating earthquakes in the small Central American country.
Most of the Venezuelans enrolled in the TPS program crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally or entered the country under Biden administration programs designed to reduce illegal immigration over the past four years. They have arrived in the U.S. as part of a larger exodus from Venezuela that has seen 8 million people flee economic calamity and government repression in the South American nation.
Ukrainian TPS holders, by and large, were either processed at the California-Mexico border in early 2022 soon after Russia invaded their homeland or flew to the U.S. under a Biden administration initiative that has allowed private citizens to sponsor Ukrainian refugees.
