Three Democratic senators are urging President Joe Biden to "act decisively" and lock down immigration policies to shield illegal immigrants from President-elect Donald Trump’s deportation efforts, Politico reported.
Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Ben Ray Luján (N.M.), and Alex Padilla (Calif.), in a Wednesday letter to the president, asked Biden to expand and extend Temporary Protected Status for migrants from Ecuador, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. The senators also called for expedited processing of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals renewals and other applications for legal pathways.
The moves, the senators noted, would "protect long-term immigrant communities and ensure that families are not returned to countries where they would face immense danger."
The letter comes as Democrats push to Trump-proof immigration policies before the former president’s return to the Oval Office in January. Trump is poised to take executive actions on his first day as president to ramp up immigration enforcement, Reuters reported.
Incoming "border czar" Tom Homan said Trump’s second administration will carry out "a well-targeted, planned operation" to deport illegal immigrants, targeting "the worst first."
"It'll be a humane operation, but it's a necessary mass deportation operation," Homan added.
Under the Biden administration, more than 7.8 million migrants entered the United States illegally, with over 13,000 illegal aliens convicted of murder now at large in the country, according to ICE data.