(Bloomberg Opinion) — Nearly 1 million refugees who entered the US legally, under temporary protections, have nevertheless become ripe targets for deportation under President Donald Trump.
His goal of mass deportations came into sharper view earlier this month, when the US Supreme Court lifted a federal injunction that had barred Trump from removing 350,000 Venezuelans in the US under a program known as Temporary Protected Status. The brief, unsigned court decision strips deportation protections and work permits from the Venezuelans and paves the way for their removal.
It also bodes ill for an for a larger group of refugees who came under a 2023 Biden executive order that expedited entry for 530,000 refugees from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Close to 900,000 refugees entered under those programs, providing the very information that now could be used against them in speeding their deportation.
That makes Trump’s deportation efforts easier, but also threatens to upend communities, rob employee sponsors of workers, and further the “Get out and stay out” tone being set by this administration.
Like TPS, the CHNV program was a temporary solution to the crises that led hundreds of thousands to flee those countries. The situation in Venezuela has been particularly dire. More than 7 million people have fled the unrest and economic instability in that country in the last decade, setting off the largest displacement in Central and South America.
Applicants for the more stringent CHNV program had to be vetted, provide proof of an American financial sponsor (typically an employer), pay their own airfare and get a job. In return, they got two years of protection and a work permit.
Biden’s attempt to reduce illegal entries through the CHNV program worked, producing a dramatic drop in illegal border crossings from the four countries. As refugees poured in legally, candidate Trump seized on the discontent in some communities such as Springfield, Ohio (home to many resettled Haitians) and Aurora, Colorado (where many Venezuelans lived). Once in office, Trump promptly revoked the CHNV program.
But by now, the vast majority of recent refugee entrants have continued to work and become part of their adopted communities. In January, Republican Representative Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida became one of the few in her party to speak out on behalf of the many law-abiding refugees in the CHNV program. Salazar, whose parents fled Cuba, wrote an appeal to the Department of Homeland Security, urging that refugees with no criminal record be permitted to stay.
Salazar is right. At a bare minimum, a more compassionate administration would carve out an exemption for law-abiding refugees who have done everything this country has asked of them. It would recognize the chaos that drove them here, and the superhuman effort needed to build new, productive lives. This country could use more of that energy.
Instead, we have a heedless executive bent on checking the mass deportation box and a court that pays so little regard to the ramifications of its order that it didn’t even provide reasoning or guidelines, as if its actions would not affect hundreds of thousands of lives. Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA and an attorney representing the Venezuelans, professed shock at the ruling, calling it “the largest single action stripping any group of noncitizens of immigration status in modern US history.”
After winning the TPS case, the administration is seeking a second intervention that would revoke the temporary stay issued by a federal judge in Massachusetts on the CHNV program.
Until he can launch his mass deportations — which could happen as soon as a budget bill passes, with its expected massive investments in immigration enforcement — Trump is finding other ways to crack down on these two groups, with an eye toward getting them to leave on their own.
The US Department of Agriculture has already issued notices to the states to cut off access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for the paroled immigrants. The letter warned that “if changes to immigration status no longer support a claim to being an eligible alien, SNAP benefits must be discontinued.”
Employers have taken note. Shortly after the Supreme Court ruling, the Walt Disney Company notified its Florida workers that those with temporary status would immediately be put on a 30-day leave, followed by the termination of their jobs unless their status changed.
“As we sort out the complexities of this situation, we have placed affected employees on leave with benefits to ensure they are not in violation of the law,” Disney said in an email.
Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin hailed the TPS decision as “a win for the American people.”
Is it? Tell that to the employers who sponsored these refugees, to the churches where they worshipped, to the communities who will feel their absence. In Springfield, Ohio, the Greater Springfield Partnership, made up of hundreds of local businesses, issued a statement last month saying that the influx of Haitians “has created many challenges in the community, but our Haitian population is willing to work hard for local employers and adapt.”
Trump can try to turn this country into an America-for-Americans fortress. But if he does, the US will have lost more than it has gained.
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This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Patricia Lopez is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. She is a former member of the editorial board at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where she also worked as a senior political editor and reporter.
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