Just ahead of the midterms, the Trump administration appears to be softening one of its signature policy pledges, immigrant advocates told The Washington Post.
According to a Trump administration official who spoke with the Post on the condition of anonymity, and to the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, the Department of Homeland Security is expected to extend Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, which shields noncitizens from certain countries from deportation, for around 100,000 Ukrainians whose protections were scheduled to expire Monday. An embassy spokeswoman said the extension is expected to last six months.
DHS did not confirm the extension. “An announcement on Ukraine’s TPS will be made at the appropriate time. Until such an announcement is made, Ukrainian individuals present in the U.S. under TPS remain under protection,” the department said in a statement.
The move follows DHS’s decision last month to let TPS remain in place for around 232,000 migrants from El Salvador. The administration never formally announced a decision, instead issuing what the Post described as a “last-minute notice.” The lack of a clear timeline has forced Salvadorans “to grapple with an uncertain future,” the Post reported. Sudanese TPS holders, also set to lose protections Monday, will keep them until further notice, DHS said.
“This is different,” said Jessica Bansal, an attorney focused on TPS litigation, speaking with the Post.
The Trump administration has moved to strip protected status from 13 of 17 countries whose nationals were covered by TPS when Trump returned to office. As to why the administration is now letting protections continue for some groups, Bansal speculated that officials may be reluctant to deprive American businesses of workers so close to the election. The administration’s mass deportation push has also proven unpopular with voters.
“There’s some very concrete negative consequences for businesses and other sorts of constituents that the administration may care more about if they strip these people of their status,” Bansal told the Post.
Todd Schulte, president of the pro-immigration advocacy group FWD.us, told the Post that forcing out tens of thousands of Ukrainians just ahead of the midterms would be politically costly.
“From a political perspective, demanding Ukrainians with TPS in battleground states like Ohio — who fled Putin’s invasion — leave the U.S. would be very unpopular,” Schulte said. “This is weeks before voters in the U.S. would issue a judgment on what would be seen as purging Ukrainians and a signal that the administration is siding with the Russian authoritarian.”