Biden government renews and extends TPS for more than 400 thousand immigrants

• Immigration: Biden Accelerates Work Permits.
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The US President Joe Biden’s government announced this Wednesday the renewal and expansion of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

This would allow 472,000 people to work and reside legally in the United States, according to Efe.

In a call with the press, government officials explained that the TPS program will be expanded.

This is to ensure that all Venezuelans who have resided continuously in the US since July 31, 2023, can benefit from it.

Who qualifies?

According to Efe, the measure significantly increases the number of people who can benefit from the program.

Until now, only those Venezuelans who had been in the United States since March 2021, when Biden announced the program, could apply for TPS.

With this change, the number of Venezuelans who could obtain a permit to work and reside in the United States increases from 242,700 to 472,000, as detailed by the Department of Homeland Security in a statement.

In practice, by expanding TPS for Venezuela, Biden will allow many Venezuelans who have arrived irregularly in the United States to become regularized.

They renew validity of the TPS

This change in the program comes at a time when politicians from Biden’s party, including New York Mayor Eric Adams, have been advocating for reforms.

They have been pressuring for the grant of temporary work permits to the thousands of refugees and undocumented migrants who are awaiting resolution of their cases.

Similarly, the Administration extended the validity of the TPS for 18 months, though it might be extended again in the future, as has occurred on multiple occasions in the past.

TPS is an immigration program established in 1990 through which the US provides special permits to immigrants from affected nations, as reported by Efe.

Why was the decision made?

The Biden Administration decided to grant TPS to Venezuelans due to the «growing instability in Venezuela and the lack of security.» This was recalled by the Department of Security in its statement.

Starting October 1, applications for employment authorization documents submitted by undocumented migrants on parole will be processed.

This processing will occur within a period of 30 days, a reduction from the previously contemplated 90 days.

The update was reported by the Department of Homeland Security during a call with journalists.

More benefits for undocumented immigrants

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that they will dedicate additional staff to reduce processing times.

This is part of an effort to expedite the management of work documents, limiting the time to just 30 days for those carried out by people on parole.

Individuals who wish to avail of this benefit should hail from specific nationalities, including Cuban, Haitian, Venezuelan, or Nicaraguan.

«The goal is to ensure that individuals can timely receive a work permit and can support themselves and their families,» the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) communicated to reporters.

Maximum validity period of documents

Additionally, USCIS will increase the maximum validity period for employment authorization documents to up to 5 years for certain individuals.

«The purpose of this is to reduce the frequency of needing to renew your work permits and also, of course, reduce the workload for USCIS,» officials from DHS added.

To date, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, more than 1.4 million notifications have been sent to undocumented immigrants who meet the requirements.

In fact, New York has declared itself overwhelmed by the more than 110,000 migrants who have arrived in its city.

Measure after the end of Title 42

On May 12, the Title 42 expired .

This rule restricted the access of undocumented migrants to the United States on public health grounds.

The Biden Administration has returned more than 253,000 individuals to 152 different countries.

During the same period in 2019, a pre-pandemic year and before Title 42 was implemented, the figure stood at 180,000 people.