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Biden extends TPS for nearly 835,000 migrants from Venezuela, El Salvador

January 10, 2025
Just 10 days before leaving office, President Joe Biden is extending Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, to more than 800,000 immigrants from Latin America who are currently in the United States legally. Biden’s move complicates President-elect Donald Trump’s signature plan to significantly cut immigration into the U.S. while also executing what he calls the largest deportation effort in the country’s history.

TPS is a program that allows immigrants to stay in the U.S. legally for a set period. It doesn’t give them a path to citizenship, and the president can renew it.

The latest decision allows 600,000 people from Venezuela and 230,000 from El Salvador to stay in the U.S. for 18 months.

Normally, the program takes the status of a migrant’s home country into account. In Venezuela, socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro took office for a third term as president Friday, Jan. 10, after an election the current State Department and Trump’s Secretary of State nominee, Marco Rubio, both said they considered to be illegitimate.

While the Biden administration extended the temporary protective status, they did not expand the program to protect newer arrivals who are in the country illegally.

Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance have both criticized the TPS program.

In his first term, Trump worked to end TPS for migrants from multiple countries but faced difficulties after migrants brought lawsuits challenging his plan.

Ending TPS will likely factor into Trump’s plans to drastically cut immigration an-d launch a mass deportation of migrants in the country illegally.

Although Biden issued an 18-month extension, the Department of Homeland Security can revoke TPS if they give 60 days’ notice.
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Huntington Beach sues California over law limiting police work with ICE

January 10, 2025
The city of Huntington Beach is once again challenging a California sanctuary law, nearly seven years after its first attempt. The city is suing the state in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, Jan. 7, arguing the California Values Act or SB-54, which limits local authorities’ ability to work with federal immigration officials, is unconstitutional.

The lawsuit argues the law violates the supremacy and naturalization clauses of the U.S. Constitution and breaks federal law by advising local law enforcement not to cooperate with U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents.

The lawsuit also cites a press release from state Attorney General Rob Bonta on Dec. 17, 2024, that reminds “California immigrants of their rights and protections under the law.”

In the release, Bonta notes, “State and local law enforcement cannot assist ICE with immigration enforcement, with very limited exceptions.”

Bonta added that ICE cannot detain migrants unless it is “part of a joint task force” whose “primary purpose is not immigration enforcement.”

Huntington Beach Mayor Pat Burns said SB-54 hurts local police officers’ “ability to fully enforce the law and keep our community safe.”

The California Values Act was signed into law in 2017 and was seen by some as “an act of resistance” by state Democrats against Trump’s first-term immigration policies.

The first Trump administration tried to have the law thrown out but the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the attempt in 2019.

The city of Huntington Beach also unsuccessfully attempted to have the law derailed in 2018.

Bonta defended the law then, promising to protect the rights of immigrants and uphold the law.

The California Attorney General’s Office has yet to respond to the latest lawsuit at the time that this report was published.
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Outgoing ICE director: Biden ‘absolutely’ should have acted sooner on border

January 9, 2025
Outgoing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director PJ Lechleitner says President Joe Biden “absolutely” should have acted sooner to tighten restrictions at the U.S.-Mexico border, NBC News reported. “The administration should’ve taken that action earlier,” Lechleitner said. “And I think the career people in DHS would’ve liked that. And I think all of us in DHS, quite frankly, I don’t know if anybody in DHS wouldn’t have wanted that earlier.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data shows more than 11 million migrants are known to have crossed the southern border during Biden’s time in office, including a record 302,034 encounters along the border in December 2023.

It wasn’t until June 2024 that President Biden took action, signing an executive order, barring “migrants who cross the Southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum.”

Following Biden’s executive order, migrant crossings fell to 104,100 in July 2024, one month after the measure was implemented.

Lechleitner criticized the delay in Biden’s action, calling it “unfortunate,” because ICE could have done more if the president had acted sooner.

“We could’ve put more resources to it,” Lechleitner told NBC News. “Either at CBP and for the border itself and with ICE. We could’ve gone and got more of these individuals who are on the non-detained docket. And we could’ve detained more people, and we could’ve removed more people. And I think we could’ve used more resources and support, and we could’ve done that in the last, you know, four years.”

Lechleitner, who has been with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) since its inception in 2003, said the agency is chronically underfunded.

As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, he has promised mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, focusing on those with criminal records. However, Lechleitner expressed doubts about the feasibility of those plans without additional funding and resources.

“I wish the incoming administration well,” Lechleitner said. “But if the agency can’t find more funding and resources, the number of deportations won’t increase. It’ll be expensive and difficult.”

Lechleitner is set to leave his position in the coming week as the incoming Trump administration brings in its own ICE appointee.
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Mexico moves migrants from US border ahead of Trump’s second term

January 7, 2025
With only a couple of weeks until President-elect Donald Trump’s second inauguration, Mexico is working to move migrant caravans away from the United States border. Mexican officials told the Associated Press they’re using a “dispersion and exhaustion” method to spread the migrants throughout the country while limiting how many gather in one place.

It’s a strategy they’ve used the past few years to significantly reduce the number of migrants reaching the border.

Mexico’s current administration is hoping to defend against Trump’s immigration policies, including his promise to carry out mass deportations and threats of increased tariffs if Mexico does not help alleviate the number of migrants entering the U.S. illegally.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum recently announced a policy reversal, saying Mexico is open to accepting foreign nationals instead of pushing the U.S. to send them to their countries of origin. The Mexican government has even promised to open 25 new shelters for deported migrants.

The AP reports dozens of migrants from various countries were spotted walking around and sleeping on the streets of Acapulco on Monday, Jan. 6.

One migrant told the AP that officials said they were going to give them a permit to move through the country on their trip north. However, that turned out to not be the case. He said the city won’t sell them bus tickets and now they’re stuck there.

Meanwhile, sources in Mexico tell NewsNation that a caravan of mostly Venezuelan migrants is making a trip from the Southern Mexican city of Tapachula to Juarez, located just miles from the U.S. border and El Paso, Texas.

Mexican immigration authorities say they expect to see even more caravans in the coming days as Trump’s second term gets closer and before his promised immigration enforcement crackdown begins.
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In reversal, Mexico may accept migrants from other nations deported by Trump

January 3, 2025
Mexico has stated that it’s not ruling out the possibility of taking in migrants deported by the United States, regardless of nationality. The decision is a reversal from what Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum initially said last month, saying Mexico would push U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to return deportees of other nationalities directly to their countries.

In a press conference Friday, Jan. 3, Sheinbaum said that Mexico is open to collaborating with the U.S.

“There will be time to speak with the United States government if these deportations really happen, but we will receive them here, we are going to receive them properly and we have a plan,” Sheinbaum said.

Sheinbaum did not elaborate on the plan, but it could include limiting certain nationalities or requesting compensation from the U.S.

Trump has promised mass deportations, however critics said there will be logistical and economic challenges.

A recent report from the American immigration council estimates that it would cost $88 billion to deport one million migrants a year. That would total more than $967 billion over a 10-year period.

Mexico is not obligated to accept non-Mexican migrants from other countries, but in the past it has agreed to do so. Cuba and Venezuela, for example, often refuse deportation flights from the U.S., but may accept them from Mexico.

Sheinbaum plans to meet with her cabinet next week to discuss immigration issues ahead of Trump taking office.
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Trump connects New Orleans attack to immigrants after false Fox News report

January 2, 2025
President-elect Donald Trump is being criticized for a statement connecting migrants to the New Orleans truck attack. The statement Trump made on Truth Social is based on a false report from Fox News that the organization had to retract.

At 10:47 a.m. the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 1, Fox reported that the Ford pickup used in the New Orleans attack was driven into the United States from Mexico two days prior. That claim turned out to be false, and Fox later walked the story back.

At 10:48 a.m. President-elect Trump posted on Truth Social, “When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before.”

In addition to correcting its own reporting, Fox had to correct the president-elect.

“Now the former president said criminals coming in, in a statement, meaning into our country. But to be clear, Molly and Brian, the suspect was born in the United States, he served in the United States Army, he was a veteran,” Fox News correspondent David Spunt said.

Fox after reading statement from Trump: The former president said criminals coming in in his statement meaning into our country. To be clear, the suspect was born in the United States. He served in the United States army. He was a veteran. pic.twitter.com/H6OeisOeas
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 1, 2025

Fox did not fully retract the story, however. It continued to release speculative comments as to whether the truck may have been connected to human smuggling.

“We understand that the truck does have a history of plate readers. It never actually passed through from Mexico into Eagle Pass,” Fox anchor Julie Banderas said. “However, the license plate on this truck has a history of plate readers at the border in patterns, and I’m quoting, that may be suspicious for human smuggling.”

Fox: It never actually passed through from Mexico into Eagle Pass, however the license plate on this truck has a history of plate readers at the border, in patterns and I'm quoting, that may be suspicious for human smuggling. pic.twitter.com/cc6GtqfaDy
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 1, 2025

When the anchor said that, she left out the fact that the truck was a rental, and there was no evidence to suggest its use in a Texas border city was in any way connected to the attack in New Orleans.

Trump doubled down on the immigrant rhetoric with a post just after midnight on Thursday, Jan. 2.

“This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS, with weak, ineffective, and virtually nonexistent leadership. The DOJ, FBI, and Democrat state and local prosecutors have not done their job. They are incompetent and corrupt,” Trump wrote.

On Wednesday morning, 14 people were killed and more than 30 were injured when the attacker drove a truck down Bourbon Street in New Orleans. The suspect was a U.S. citizen and Army veteran, and posted a video before the attack saying he was inspired by ISIS.
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46% of GOP voters support military detaining migrants illegally in US: Survey

December 30, 2024
Nearly half of Republican voters believe the U.S. military should put immigrants living in the U.S. illegally into internment camps until they can be deported. The data comes from a new survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).

Republican voters were more than twice as likely as independents (19%) and over five times as likely as Democrats (8%) to support this policy.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection numbers, more than 11 million migrants entered the U.S. under the Biden-Harris administration.

President-elect Donald Trump has said he believes that number is closer to 21 million migrants and that he will declare a national emergency to address immigration.

Trump and his incoming “border czar,” Tom Homan, have said they will use all means necessary to carry out their plan of mass deportations, including the military.

In Trump’s Time Magazine Person of the Year interview, he was asked about how he would use the military since the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement.

Trump responded, saying he would “go to the maximum the laws of the country allow.”

“It doesn’t stop the military if it’s an invasion of our country, and I consider it an invasion of our country,” he said.

The state of Texas has also offered Trump’s incoming administration hundreds of acres of land to build detention camps and carry out deportation plans.

The PRRI post-election survey was conducted between Nov. 8 and Dec. 2, and it is based on a representative sample of 5,772 adults living in the United States.
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Guatemala open to dialogue with Trump administration on deportations

December 27, 2024
Government officials in Guatemala said they are open to having “constructive and respectful dialogue” with President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration. Trump has vowed mass deportations of undocumented immigrants in his second term and plans to begin the process quickly after his inauguration.

Officials said Guatemala is open to receiving migrants who may be from other Central American countries deported from the United States, according to Reuters.

So far, no such agreement between the two countries has been made.

The U.S. has faced difficulties in deporting citizens from countries like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti due to tense diplomatic relations.

The Bahamas and Mexico have also said they do not want to receive deportees from third-party countries.

“There has to be a regional response and we want to be part of the solution,” a Guatemalan official told Reuters anonymously.

In a statement released Thursday, Dec. 26, government officials from Guatemala said they are in ongoing talks with Trump’s transition team but has yet to meet with officials about his plan to deport record numbers of undocumented immigrants.

In late November 2024, Guatemala’s security minister and migration director visited Washington, D.C. The delegation met with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Trump’s pick for secretary of state, and other top Republicans to discuss drug trafficking, migration and deportations, according to Reuters. The visit signaled Guatemala’s interest in maintaining strong ties with the U.S.
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Incoming ‘border czar’ Homan says he will bring back ‘zero tolerance’ policy

December 26, 2024
Tom Homan, President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming “border czar,” said he will reinstate the “zero tolerance” policy first implemented by Homan during Trump’s first term in office. This policy separates undocumented immigrant children from their parents when the family is charged with unlawfully entering the country.

Homan told The Washington Post that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials will hold parents and their children in “soft sided” tent structures, similar to those seen at the U.S. southern border during immigration surges.

The Trump administration will not hesitate to deport parents who are in the country illegally, even if they have U.S. citizen children. Homan said the federal government cannot deport U.S. citizens, however, families can be deported together — a decision the families will have to make.

“You knew you were in the country illegally and chose to have a child. So you put your family in that position,” Homan told the Post.

Homan said the incoming administration is planning on building more detention facilities.

“We need to show the American people we can do this and not be inhumane about it,” he said. “We can’t lose the faith of the American people.”

Last month, the state of Texas offered Trump’s team 1,400 acres of land along the U.S. southern border in Starr County and land near El Paso to build detention facilities to help with deportation efforts.

In an interview with CNN, Homan said he’s going to need more resources and manpower, including a minimum of 100,000 detention beds.

Trump has said he plans to use the military to help conduct mass deportations. Homan told the Post that troops can assist with transportation and other functions.

“I don’t see this thing as being sweeps and the military going through neighborhoods,” he told the Post, emphasizing Trump’s priority of removing undocumented immigrants with a criminal record.

Homan also acknowledged that troops are not authorized to arrest undocumented immigrants; only immigration law enforcement officials have the power to make those arrests.

Homan said he doesn’t have a target number of undocumented immigrants to deport.
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ICE deportations hit highest level since 2014: Report

December 20, 2024
As President-elect Donald Trump promises the largest mass deportation operation in the nation’s history, a new report by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shows that the number of deportations hit a decade-high. ICE deported 271,484 migrants in fiscal year 2024, which ended in September, according to the agency’s report released Thursday, Dec. 20.

That represents a significant increase compared to the previous year when ICE reported 142,000 deportations.

Nearly 89,000 deportees had criminal charges or convictions, according to ICE, with fewer than 1% arrested for homicide.

Overall, it is the largest number of deportations since President Barack Obama deported 315,943 migrants in 2014.

However, it is considerably small compared to the more than 11 million migrant encounters reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) under the Biden administration over the last four years.

CBP agents encountered more than 2.9 million migrants this year, with 2.1 million of those encounters occurring at the U.S. southern border.

With Trump’s inauguration in one month, his incoming “border czar,” Tom Homan, said earlier this week that the administration’s deportation plan will begin on day one.
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