President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is extending temporary amnesty status to thousands of Somali nationals living in the United States who would otherwise be eligible for deportation.
On Thursday, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that the Biden administration is extending and redesignating Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months, which will allow more than 2,600 Somali nationals to remain living and working in the U.S.
“Through the extension and redesignation of Somalia for Temporary Protected Status, the United States will be able to offer safety and protection to Somalis who may not be able to return to their country, due to ongoing conflict and the continuing humanitarian crisis,” Mayorkas said in a statement.
Specifically, TPS will be extended for about 430 Somalis who are already in the U.S. and allows another 2,200 eligible Somalis to join the program, securing work permits to hold American jobs.
Extensions of TPS have long been followed by surges at the southern border, particularly of border crossers arriving under the false premise that they may be eligible for the protected status if they get into the U.S.
In May 2021, for instance, Biden rewarded TPS to more than 100,000 Haitians living in the U.S. who would have otherwise been eligible for deportation. Since then, DHS has seen a significant spike in tens of thousands of Haitian border crossers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border on a monthly basis.
TPS serves as a quasi-amnesty for foreign nationals, created under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990 (INA), that prevents deportations for those from countries experiencing famine, war, or natural disasters.
Since the Clinton administration, TPS has been transformed into a de facto amnesty program as the Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and now Biden administrations have continuously renewed the program for a variety of countries.
Today, more than half a million foreign nationals live and work in the U.S. who are either enrolled or eligible for TPS. This figure does not include the U.S.-born children of TPS-holders nor those who have subsequently secured green cards.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.