Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) is urging the Biden administration to take immediate action to extend deportation protections and work permits for illegal immigrants, citing concerns over the incoming Trump administration’s promise of a large-scale deportation campaign. Cortez Masto specifically called for expanding Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and ensuring robust support for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Cortez Masto pressed President Biden to act, stating, “President Biden has the power to protect immigrant families, and I’m calling on him to use it.” TPS, administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), provides work permits and shields nationals from deportation if their home countries are deemed unsafe. The Biden administration has used TPS extensively, extending protections to hundreds of thousands of nationals from countries such as Haiti and Venezuela.
The senator emphasized that Biden should not only extend existing TPS protections but also expedite the processing of DACA applications. DACA shields illegal immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors from deportation, offering them work permits and the ability to remain in the country legally.
“They are part of our communities, and what the president can do is just take legal action to extend their TPS statuses. But it’s not just our TPS recipients. My hope is that the president, in the last two months, also quickly processes our DACA recipients applications. We need to make sure our dreamers also have the ability to stay here, continue to be a part of the country that they grew up in,” Cortez Masto said on MSNBC.
The Trump administration has long criticized TPS and DACA. During Trump’s first term, attempts were made to end DACA and reduce TPS protections, but these efforts faced legal and political setbacks. Cortez Masto expressed concern that the upcoming administration would either terminate TPS for many nationalities or let existing protections expire.
Trump’s campaign pledge to implement a mass deportation campaign has heightened urgency for action, Cortez Masto said. She warned, “They’re going to engage in mass deportation, and nobody’s safe,” adding that Biden should use his remaining time in office to ensure legal protections for vulnerable immigrant populations.
In October, the Biden administration expanded TPS protections for Lebanese nationals, extending eligibility to an estimated 11,000 individuals under both TPS and Deferred Enforcement Departure. Cortez Masto cited this example as evidence of the administration’s ability to act quickly and called for similar measures for other immigrant groups.
