XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, misc.immigration.usa, talk.politics.misc   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.crime, sac.politics   
   From: remailer@domain.invalid   
      
   On 19 Sep 2023, NoTrump  posted some   
      
   > Biden and Harris should both be arrested for treason.   
      
   Washington — The Biden administration on Wednesday offered nearly   
   half-a-million Venezuelan migrants in the U.S. the ability to live   
   and work in the country legally, approving a longstanding request   
   from cities struggling to house asylum-seekers.   
      
   The Department of Homeland Security expanded, or redesignated, the   
   Temporary Protected Status program for Venezuelan migrants, allowing   
   recent arrivals to apply for the deportation protections and work   
   permits offered by the policy. CBS News first reported the move   
   earlier Wednesday.   
      
   Previously, only Venezuelans who arrived in the U.S. before March   
   2021 qualified for TPS, a program created by Congress in 1990 to   
   offer a temporary safe haven to migrants from countries facing   
   humanitarian crises, such as an armed conflict or a natural   
   disaster.   
      
   By redesignating Venezuela's TPS program, the U.S. is rendering the   
   record number of Venezuelans who have reached the U.S. over the past   
   two years eligible for the status. An estimated 472,000 additional   
   Venezuelans are expected to qualify for TPS, which has already   
   allowed about 242,000 migrants from that country to obtain the   
   status, according to DHS figures. Venezuelans who reached the U.S.   
   after the end of July will not qualify for TPS.   
      
   "Temporary protected status provides individuals already present in   
   the United States with protection from removal when the conditions   
   in their home country prevent their safe return," Homeland Security   
   Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement. "That is the   
   situation that Venezuelans who arrived here on or before July 31 of   
   this year find themselves in."   
      
   While others without legal status will also qualify for TPS, the   
   announcement will mostly benefit the more than 400,000 Venezuelan   
   migrants who have trekked to the U.S. southern border over the past   
   two-and-a-half years as part of a massive exodus from the South   
   American country.   
      
   In recent years, more than seven million Venezuelans have fled   
   economic calamity and authoritarian rule, with most of them   
   resettling in other South American nations, such as Colombia,   
   marking the largest refugee crisis ever recorded in the Western   
   Hemisphere. Increasingly, more Venezuelans have left Venezuela or   
   other countries in search of better economic opportunities in the   
   U.S., embarking on a weeks-long journey that entails crossing   
   Panama's once-impenetrable Darién Gap on foot.   
      
   The administration's announcement is an important victory for   
   congressional Democrats and leaders in large cities like New York,   
   who for months have been pressuring the federal government to grant   
   migrants in their communities legal status so they can work legally   
   more quickly and not rely on local services.   
      
   New York City, in particular, has struggled to house tens of   
   thousands of migrants, many of them from Venezuela, in over 200   
   hotels, shelters, tent cities and other facilities.   
      
   "Our administration and our partners across the city have led the   
   calls to 'Let Them Work,' so I want to thank President Biden for   
   hearing our entire coalition, including our hard-working   
   congressional delegation, and taking this important step that will   
   bring hope to the thousands of Venezuelan asylum seekers currently   
   in our care who will now be immediately eligible for Temporary   
   Protected Status," New York Mayor Eric Adams said on Wednesday.   
      
   The Biden administration has used TPS on an unprecedented scale,   
   making record numbers of migrants from Afghanistan, Cameroon,   
   Ethiopia, Haiti, Myanmar, Sudan and Ukraine eligible for the   
   program.   
      
   The administration has also kept in place long-standing TPS programs   
   for El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal, reversing the Trump   
   administration's efforts to terminate them. TPS has long been   
   criticized by Republicans who argue it had been improperly used to   
   give legal status to migrants, some of whom entered the U.S.   
   illegally, for indefinite periods of time despite its temporary   
   nature.   
      
   The Biden administration, however, has internally resisted at times   
   expanding TPS programs for certain countries, such as Nicaragua, due   
   to concerns about encouraging more migrants to cross the U.S.-Mexico   
   border illegally with a generous immigration announcement.   
      
   Pressed by CBS News on whether they feared that expanding the TPS   
   policy could fuel more migration, administration officials said they   
   hoped to dissuade Venezuelan migrants from entering the U.S.   
   illegally by setting a cut-off date for the program in July.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)