Homeland Security announced a new deportation amnesty Friday for Syrians living in the U.S., renewing the status of about 6,700 people already protected, and extending it to cover about 1,800 more Syrians who are currently in the country illegally.
Acting Secretary David Pekoske announced the move, which flexes what’s known as Temporary Protected Status.
TPS grants a halt of deportations, and allows people to get work permits and some taxpayer benefits, during the duration of the designation. Syria has been designated since 2012, and Mr. Pekoske’s move grants another 18-month window.
But the key decision was to re-designate the country, which opens the program to Syrians who have arrived and are now here illegally.
“The Syrian civil war continues to demonstrate deliberate targeting of civilians, the use of chemical weapons and irregular warfare tactics, and use of child soldiers. The war has also caused sustained need for humanitarian assistance, an increase in refugees and displaced people, food insecurity, limited access to water and medical care, and large-scale destruction of Syria’s infrastructure. These conditions prevent Syrian nationals from safely returning,” Homeland Security said in justifying the move.
Immigration, Muslim and Syrian advocacy groups cheered the news.
The Syrian American Council called the decision “just and fact-based.”
“This decision provides a strong starting point for the new administration’s relationship with Syrian Americans and a Syria policy that promotes the safety of Syrian civilians and their aspirations for a free and democratic Syria,” the council said.
TPS has long been controversial, with more than 400,000 people currently protected from 10 countries. Some have been here more than two decades under TPS.
The Trump administration tried to put an end to some of those longest-running designations, such as the 200,000 people from El Salvador. That move was delayed in the courts, and the Biden team is expected to reverse the former president’s efforts.
Biden officials are also expected to grant new designations to other countries.
“The United States is restoring its commitment to providing humanitarian protection,” Anna Gallagher, executive director of Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., said after Friday’s announcement.
On Capitol Hill, Democrats are fighting to grant permanent legal status to most of the 400,000 TPS holders.
President Trump had opposed that effort, and in one now infamous reported incident referred to some of those nations as “s—-hole” countries.
That comment was cited by courts in several cases halting some of his immigration moves.
Both Republicans and Democrats have called for Venezuela to be designated with TPS to allow people who fled the regime there a chance to remain in the U.S.
Mr. Trump, in his final days, announced another type of short-term deportation amnesty, but not TPS.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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