In July, the Biden-Harris administration extended and “redesignated” something called Temporary Protected Status for Somalis who are present in the U.S. illegally, allowing them to stay here until 2026.
Over 700,000 Venezuelan nationals also enjoy this immigration status or are eligible for it under this presidential administration, and more about them later.
Somalia got its initial Temporary Protected Status designation in 1991—before most Somalis were born, since the median age there is 15. Its protected status under U.S. immigration law—and that of other countries such as Venezuela and El Salvador—just keeps getting extended and expanded, over and over.
This makes the process a parallel, quasi-asylum procedure without any basis in law.
Congress created Temporary Protected Status with the intention of protecting those foreign nationals already in the U.S. when some qualifying bad event—such as ongoing armed conflict, natural disaster, or “extraordinary and temporary conditions”—occurred in their home country.
This immigration status is different than asylum. Yet every modern president except Donald Trump has used it as relief for foreign nationals without written legal authority. You can’t find the word “redesignate” in the law.
This is important because the effect of “redesignation” is to expand the timeframe of when foreign nationals must have entered the U.S. to capture more recent entrants from the country in question. This is a violation of the statute’s intent.
Temporary Protected Status is but one of many immigration provisions that government officials have twisted way beyond their clear purposes to create large populations who then advocate legalization and eventual citizenship. That’s deliberate.
Unable to force through Congress the kinds of sweeping increases in immigration numbers that they want, while lowering eligibility requirements, Democrats since the Clinton administration have used back-door methods to accomplish their goals.
President Joe Biden has been the most egregious, but one can only imagine what a President Kamala Harris could do, given her feckless handling of the border portfolio for three years—much less her statements as a U.S. senator about “reforming” (read “ending”) immigration enforcement.
Currently, citizens of 16 countries may get Temporary Protected Status. Some entered America on visas and overstayed, rendering themselves illegal unless they qualify for asylum or other protection under U.S. law.
Others came across the border illegally and were released pending lengthy court proceedings to deport them. And some, called “gotaways,” snuck across the border without being encountered by U.S. authorities at all. The latter two categories dramatically increased since Biden became president in January 2021.
Starting then, the Biden administration began authorizing TPS for Venezuelans, who now enjoy that status more than the citizens of any other country. The Department of Homeland Security said there were already 242,700 TPS beneficiaries from Venezuela as of last September, when Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas declared an “extension and redesignation” that made another 472,000 Venezuelans eligible.
The idea behind Temporary Protected Status is in the name—it’s supposed to provide temporary protection. That means individuals so designated are to go home when their country’s immediate crisis has ended, not when that country becomes a fully developed, stable democracy far in the future.
Somalia, a dirt-poor country with practically no functioning government, industrial base, or natural resources, might never get it together.
But Venezuela is potentially the world’s greatest oil producer and was doing pretty well before it went far down the path of socialism.
Most of the Venezuelans who left under the regimes of Hugo Chavez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro, went to countries in Latin America. There are nearly 2 million in Colombia alone.
At least a million made it to the United States, where they either were allowed to enter under immigration parole—a power abused by the Biden administration to pre-clear over a million inadmissible aliens for mass release—or simply are being released into the country and punted into endlessly backlogged U.S. immigration courts.
Under a Biden order, Venezuelans share a quota of 30,000 parole slots a month with Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans. This allows them to book an appointment to be paroled using a phone application and then fly in by commercial airliner.
Between those allowed in under parole at land ports or airports and those released between ports of entry by the Border Patrol, nearly 263,000 encounters with Venezuelans have occurred so far in fiscal year 2024, which ends Sept. 30. There were 334,914 last fiscal year and 189,520 in fiscal 2022.
The Biden administration’s excuse for releasing or paroling all these Venezuelans is that they are fleeing political persecution and will apply for asylum here.
Biden’s approach to evil regimes is, as Oscar Wilde said of second marriages, “the triumph of hope over experience.” Last October, the U.S. made a deal with Venezuela in Barbados where we agreed to let Venezuela sell more oil and Maduro agreed to hold free and fair elections.
Since then, Maduro steadily broke his promises. The Venezuelan dictator’s tame supreme court banned his popular opponent, Maria Corina Machado, from running. And his thugs harassed opposition supporters.
In response, the Biden administration reluctantly reimposed some economic sanctions in April, while leaving Venezuela able to sell a lot of oil.
But Maduro didn’t ban another opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, from running. With Machado campaigning on his behalf, Gonzalez was the favorite to win by far.
Venezuela’s presidential election took place last Sunday. Leading up to it, the Maduro regime sabotaged opposition rallies, arrested opposition politicians, and reportedly assassinated enemies overseas.
It came as no surprise to see Maduro welch on the deal he made with the Biden administration, which speaks softly and carries no stick, to turn Teddy Roosevelt’s famous phrase on its head. Opposition leaders are certain that they beat Maduro by a large margin. Much of the world agrees.
China, Russia, and other far-left leaders in Latin America, meanwhile, are willing to pretend Maduro won. He allowed pitifully few election observers and now is trying to cover his tracks by hiding the results of the voting.
Protests reportedly have occurred in several cities, with crowds pulling down statues of Chavez. It’s anyone’s guess what will happen next. The likely bet is on ruthless repression by the Maduro regime to keep power.
But if the U.S. and a few key countries apply maximum pressure, and the Venezuelan people refuse to be cowed, Maduro might yet concede. Logically, his ouster would lead to a mass reverse flow of Venezuelans back home to rebuild their country and restart its economy. But don’t bet on it.
The old, bipartisan norm that U.S. immigration law should be enforced until changed by Congress is gone. Biden put the nail in that coffin.
But it is not good for the country if only one political party believes that immigration laws are to be taken seriously. Law enforcement matters to rich and poor, black and white. Ensuring national security and public safety is goal No. 1 for federal and state or local governments, respectively. Without that, neither vibrant political discourse nor economic growth is possible.
What this means is that we should enforce the “temporary” part of Temporary Protected Status.
A Gonzalez presidency would ask American leftists to put their convictions into action. They pay lip service to the notion that those failing to win asylum should be deported, while removing very few in practice.
Leftists can’t deny the temporary, conditional nature of TPS, parole, and other quasi-legal immigration channels. But they refuse to let any temporary status end, even when circumstances allow.
If Gonzalez can claim the electoral prize, restore democracy, and allow Venezuela’s economy to roar back to life, then any credible legal grounds for Temporary Protected Status and pending asylum claims will disappear. So would the reason underlying the Biden administration’s mass grants of parole.
CNN quotes one exile in Bogota, Colombia, as saying: “Maduro can only win the election if he steals it. But if there’s a new government, I’d go back the same day. Not just me, hundreds, thousands … there won’t be enough planes for everyone to return home.”
If Venezuela does get back on its feet, Congress and whoever is president should uphold the law, end Temporary Protected Status, and require recipients of that immigration status to return home.
For that to be possible, the U.S. government must show a spine and not let Maduro get away with stealing this election.
The BorderLine is a weekly Daily Signal feature examining everything from the unprecedented illegal immigration crisis at the border to immigration’s impact on cities and states throughout the land. We will also shed light on other critical border-related issues such as human trafficking, drug smuggling, terrorism, and more.
Read Other BorderLine Columns:
Here’s the Chart on Illegal Immigration That Trump Was Talking About When Shot
How Noncitizens Get to Vote in US Elections and How to Stop It
Yes, America Is Exceptional. Happy 4th of July!
Supreme Court Confirms No ‘Right’ for Foreigners to Enter US
