‘Temporary’ Protected Status: A Tool for Executive Mischief
By Mark Krikorian
May 24, 2021 4:03 PM
DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced over the weekend that his agency would grant a work-permit amnesty (under so-called Temporary Protected Status) to all Haitian illegal aliens in the U.S.
Haitians who were here at the time of that country’s devastating 2010 earthquake already had this “temporary” (but routinely renewed) status, but Saturday’s announcement reopened the TPS amnesty to all the new Haitian illegals who’ve come in the decade-plus since then. The Federal Register notice, which hasn’t been published yet, will offer DHS’s estimate of how many illegal aliens would benefit, but media reports put the number at 100,000 or more post–2010 illegals, on top of the 50,000 or so Haitians who already have TPS.
As my colleague (and former senior USCIS official) Rob Law noted, “The stated reasons by the Biden administration for a TPS designation do not conform with the statute.” In the press release announcing the amnesty, Mayorkas said “Haiti is currently experiencing serious security concerns, social unrest, an increase in human rights abuses, crippling poverty, and lack of basic resources, which are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic” – this is simply a less scatological version of Trump’s “shithole countries” crack, but even if true, none of this prevents the return of Haitian illegal aliens.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/temporary-protected-status-a-tool-for-executive-mischief/
