Congress Should Require TPS for Immigrants from Nations With Armed Conflicts

David J. BierSince 1990, the executive branch has had the authority from Congress to provide Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to people already in the United States who are from countries in which an “ongoing armed conflict within the state" exists. A bipartisan group in Congress wrote a letter to the Biden administration requesting that it designate Ukraine for TPS, and then they also proposed  legislation torequire it to use its authority.Finally, the administrationhas relented (with the full details still to be filled in). But Congress should still recognize the procedural problem with giving total discretion to the administration not to offer TPS and require it whenever there is a major armed conflict in order to permanently eliminate the problem of delayed TPS designa tions in those cases. Despite the TPS designation for Ukraine, other countries with serious armed conflicts, like Afghanistan and Iraq, are not being designated for TPS.TPS would assure that perhaps as many as28,000 Ukrainians in the United States in temporary statuses (or, in some rare cases, no status) are not forced to choose between living here illegally or having to find some way to return to the war zone. TPS provides work authorization and legal status for up 18 months at a time to people from the designated country who arrived before the designated date. The designation and status may be renewed if conditions do not sufficiently improve.It should surprise no one that despite the clear authoriza...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs