The current legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants is at risk after failed negotiations between their lawyers and the Biden administration. Their lawyers and the Biden administration were unable to come to an agreement over the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) that was previously granted to citizens of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Nepal, and Honduras. The Trump administration tried to end TPS for these countries while he was president, but the issue has been tied up in the courts for years now.
For more than a year now, the Biden administration has tried to negotiate a settlement so that countess lives are not affected in a negative way. However, this was to no avail, as the two sides have been unable to reach an agreement.
As a result of the collapse of settlement negotiations, approximately 337,000 immigrants are at risk of losing their legal status in the United States. Without legal status, these people groups will be placed in disenfranchised conditions, and they might also end facing deportation to their native country (El Salvador, Nicaragua, Nepal, or Honduras). This does not account for the families, spouses, and children that are reliant upon the economic upward mobility of these individuals. Those affected may lose status as early as December 31, 2022.
Immigration lawyers have expressed that the administration’s failure to reach a compromise in favor of those under TPS will force Biden to defend Trump’s unfair and arbitrary policies. Biden, however, vowed in the year 2020 to prevent the deportation of TPS beneficiaries to countries that he believed would place their safety in jeopardy.
Although this appears to be an unfavorable verdict for immigrants who have been able to live and work in the U.S. under this policy, there is still the possibility that the program and their status can be extended for another nine months.
