A group of senators is urging President Joe Biden to designate the occupied Palestinian territories for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in order to grant Palestinians in the U.S. the “strongest possible protection” against moves like deportation.
In a letter effort led by Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vermont), the senators say that neither Gaza nor the occupied West Bank are safe for Palestinians to return to, making the need for the TPS designation clear.
“Congress established TPS to allow noncitizens who are unable to return home safely to remain in the United States for a temporary, but extendable, period. The ongoing conflict in Gaza and the West Bank is precisely the kind of crisis Congress envisioned when crafting TPS,” the lawmakers wrote.
The letter was signed by eight senators, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont).
In February, the Biden administration issued an 18-month Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) program for Palestinians that, similarly to TPS, allows people from certain places to remain in the U.S. and apply for employment. The administration granted the status after over 100 members of Congress and a number of rights groups wrote to Biden asking for TPS or DED for Palestinians in November 2023.
However, the senators note that DED may not be enough to protect Palestinians amid Israel’s genocide of Gaza and escalated attacks in the occupied West Bank.
“DED may be insufficient in this instance. It derives from a president’s constitutional authority to conduct foreign affairs and thus does not offer the strongest possible protection for this vulnerable population. TPS, on the other hand, is firmly rooted in statute and therefore more durable,” the senators explain. “It can and should be applied here to protect Palestinians present in the United States.”
The Biden administration has previously acknowledged that TPS grants stronger protections. In October, Biden granted TPS to Lebanon, despite having already granted DED to people from Lebanon in July. As immigration experts have explained, it is harder for presidents to take away TPS benefits than DED protections, while TPS also allows people who have recently reached the U.S. to receive protections.
Incoming president Donald Trump has previously threatened to implement inhumane, fascist immigration policies regarding Palestinians, including bringing back his travel ban and extending it to Gaza. He has pledged to deport supposed “pro-Hamas radicals” — meaning anyone who supports Palestinian rights, regardless of whether or not they actually support Hamas.
Republicans have also been gearing up for a huge deportation campaign. Trump has promised to revoke TPS for a number of countries, some of which have been in place for decades; Trump had tried to revoke TPS for people from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan during his first term, but the effort was temporarily blocked in the courts after rights groups sued.
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