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In one of the Biden administration’s final immigration actions, the Department of Homeland Security will extend four temporary protected status grants for nearly 1 million immigrants from Venezuela, El Salvador, Ukraine, and Sudan until the fall of 2026. Announced. The extension will allow people from countries currently protected by TPS to apply for an additional 18 months of protection from deportation and work permits.
The announcement, which is expected to be made official on Friday, January 17, the last weekday before Biden leaves office, is somewhat unusual.
TPS is typically granted to specific countries for 18 to 24 months at a time, usually in the immediate aftermath of war, natural disaster, or other humanitarian emergency that prevents people from safely returning to their home countries. Typically, governments wait until that period is almost over to decide whether to extend TPS protection for current beneficiaries and/or bring a country into TPS so that new arrivals from that country can register for protection for the first time. We will announce whether we will re-designate it or not.
However, in this case, El Salvador’s TPS was not scheduled to expire until March. The other three countries’ designations were scheduled to expire in April. Now, thanks to the Biden administration’s announcement, all deadlines will be extended by 18 months beyond that.
The results are clear. President-elect Donald Trump attempted to eliminate TPS protections for several countries, including El Salvador, during his first term in office. Although his efforts were mostly blocked by federal courts, Trump associates have made it clear that they intend to repeal many or all of the existing TPS protections. Hundreds of thousands of people will be stripped of their legal status and forced into exile if current protections expire. .
The Biden administration’s move will postpone the Trump administration’s ability to eliminate TPS protections for these four countries. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants will benefit. The Biden administration estimates that 607,000 Venezuelans in the United States are protected by TPS, as well as 232,000 Salvadorans. 103,700 Ukrainians. and 1,900 Sudanese nationals.
But the Trump administration will still have many opportunities to remove people from legal status. South Sudan’s TPS designation is scheduled to expire in June. Honduras and Nicaragua are expected to be defeated in July. In addition to the expected move by the Trump administration to end the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) parole program and possible court action to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. There will be many opportunities for the next government. He is currently a legal immigrant under U.S. law who is in the country illegally and is subject to deportation.
And even countries currently extended by Biden still face loss of TPS designation when the next opportunity for review arrives in fall 2026 (September 2026 for El Salvador, October 2026 for other countries). I’m going to do it. But the Biden administration’s aggressive actions in these four countries will give beneficiaries temporary reprieve and an opportunity to find another way to remain in the United States or make other plans.
In charge: Biden administration, Donald Trump, El Salvador, Ukraine
