Hispanic Democrats want Biden to cut the red tape for migrants

A group of Democrats is calling on the Biden administration to make a series of policy adjustments to help nationals of El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua keep or obtain work permits.

According to a draft letter obtained by The Hill, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) are calling on the White House to redesignate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for those countries and to extend registration periods for individuals to sign up for the program’s benefits.

The letter goes deep into policy detail on TPS — a program to protect foreign nationals from forced repatriation to dangerous conditions — to arrive at a broad conclusion: Immigration bureaucracy is too complicated for most people to follow.

“These TPS holders have endured five years of uncertainty, confusion, and multiple notices to auto-extend their status,” wrote the lawmakers.

“A 60-day period is far too short for service providers to effectively conduct outreach to these impacted communities in order to ensure they have received this updated information and are able to follow the necessary procedures to re-register and retain their TPS protections.”

The 60-day period in question was implemented by the Biden administration in its efforts to undo the Trump administration’s policy of dismantling TPS benefits.

The four countries are known collectively as the “Ramos” countries for a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that froze Trump’s efforts to end those TPS designations.

In June, the Biden administration rescinded Trump’s terminations for the Ramos countries and extended TPS for all four, rendering much of the lawsuit moot, though litigation continues as the plaintiffs seek to set a precedent to protect TPS benefits.

With the rescission, the administration gave TPS beneficiaries 60 days to renew their status, which would allow them to work and live in the United States until 2025.

For many beneficiaries, that change is confusing because the Biden administration had previously announced an automatic renewal extending TPS-related work papers until 2024, while the core of the Ramos case was still in court.

“As a result, more than 330,000 current TPS beneficiaries from these four nations now have to re-register for TPS within these 60-day periods to benefit from DHS’s additional extension and maintain their status into 2025,” wrote the lawmakers.

Failing to register in those 60 days could cause TPS holders to lose their benefits.

The lawmakers made the case that the 60-day period is not only short, but the government has not done its part to inform people of the changing process.

“Many TPS beneficiaries believe TPS is automatically renewed, and those with work permits expiring in June 2024 are incorrectly assuming that re-registration isn’t required to maintain their status through 2025,” they wrote. 

“The absence of resources, education, and direct notifications from [United States Citizenship and Immigration Services] has placed these communities in an extraordinarily difficult position to meet these 60-day re-registration deadlines.”

DHS can designate any country for TPS for a period of up to 18 months, covering that country’s nationals who are present in U.S. territory at a designated cutoff date.

DHS can renew designations at the end of the period, allowing the same people already covered to remain in the country, or DHS can redesignate a given country, extending coverage to new arrivals.

The lawmakers are calling for a redesignation for El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua, essentially fast-tracking work permits for nationals of those countries who came after their respective cutoff dates.

Such a change would be significant because it would cover both undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers from those countries, potentially extending benefits to people who have lived and worked in the United States for decades.

It could also help to ease tensions between the Biden administration and northern cities that have been demanding faster processing for migrants’ work permits.

The letter, led by Reps. Joaquín Castro (D-Texas), Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.) and Delia Ramírez (D-Ill.), also has support from Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.) and other members, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and more than a dozen immigration and Latino inclusion advocacy groups.