Hispanic Democratic Senators Push Biden For Stronger Policies To Protect Immigrants As Trump Era Looms

Three Hispanic Democratic senators, including Catherine Cortez Masto from Nevada, Alex Padilla from California, and Ben Ray Luján from New Mexico, have urged President Joe Biden to take action to protect immigrant groups that might lose their legal status as soon as Donald Trump takes office.

The senators wrote a letter to Biden on Wednesday, asking him to strengthen the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program and speed up the renewal process for programs like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), as per The Hill.

Around 864,000 people are currently covered by the TPS program, according to the National Immigration Forum. This program allows people from specific countries to live and work in the United States for renewable periods of 18 months.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) decides which countries qualify for TPS. These decisions are based on situations like natural disasters or other crises that make it unsafe for those countries to accept deported individuals.

"We write today to urge you to act decisively during the remainder of your term of office to complete important work that will protect long-term immigrant communities and ensure that families are not returned to countries where they would face immense danger," the senators wrote.

"In addition to supporting strong border security, we are eager to ensure that DACA recipients, TPS holders, and other immigrants who are critical members of our communities and economies are not forgotten during this busy time."

Lawmakers mentioned worsening crises in countries like Ecuador, Nicaragua and El Salvador, which pose serious risks to hundreds of thousands of people.

They noted that individuals from these countries cannot safely return due to issues, such as increasing violence in Ecuador and government repression in Nicaragua and El Salvador.

Salvadorans with TPS have been living in the U.S. for over 23 years. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have consistently renewed El Salvador's designation, except during Trump's first term, when some TPS designations were allowed to expire.

Meanwhile, GOP leaders are supporting Trump's mass deportation policies by facilitating cooperation between the local and state authorities.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whose state has the third-largest number of undocumented immigrants, said last week that states and local governments should help with deportations if they want to receive federal funding.