President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is extending and re-designating Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 500 Somali nationals to allow them to continue living in the United States.
On Monday, Mayorkas announced an 18-month extension of TPS for 447 Somalis already enrolled in the program and a re-designation that will allow about 100 additional Somalis to enroll — all of whom can legally take jobs in the U.S. Every administration since 1991 has extended TPS for Somalia.
Mayorkas said in a statement that he did so “due to ongoing conflict and a worsening humanitarian crisis.”
“Through the extension and re-designation 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 … we will continue to offer our support to Somali nationals through this temporary form of humanitarian relief,” Mayorkas said.
Most recently, Mayorkas renewed for 18 months TPS for more than 100,000 Haitians as well as for more than 2,000 Yemen nationals. In March, Mayorkas granted TPS to about 320,000 Venezuelans and 1,600 Burma nationals who can now remain in the U.S. for at least 18 months.
While originally intended to be temporary, TPS has become a quasi-amnesty for otherwise illegal aliens created under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990 (INA) that prevents the deportation of foreign nationals from countries that have suffered through famine, war, or natural disasters.
Since the Clinton administration, TPS has been transformed into a de facto amnesty program as the Bush, Obama, Trump, and now Biden administrations have continuously renewed and expanded the program for a variety of countries.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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