The Trump administration is ending the Temporary Protected Status of thousands of immigrants from Syria living in the U.S., arguing it is not in America’s interest to continue the humanitarian program, the Department of Homeland Security announced Friday.
The department said conditions no longer prevent Syrians from returning to their war-ravaged homeland. Syria faced a bloody civil war for over a decade until dictator Bashar al-Assad was ousted last year. Sectarian violence has continued even after the Assad government was overthrown.
In a statement, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin also cited terrorist activity in Syria as additional grounds to terminate the TPS program.
“Syria has been a hotbed of terrorism and extremism for nearly two decades, and it is contrary to our national interest to allow Syrians to remain in our country,” McLaughlin added. “TPS is meant to be temporary.”
Syrians who don’t have another legal mechanism to remain in the U.S. once their TPS expires in roughly 60 days will be eligible to be arrested and deported by federal immigration officials. The Trump administration on Friday advised Syrians enrolled in the TPS program to self-deport from the U.S. using its CBP Home smartphone app.
Syria’s TPS designation dates back to the Obama administration, which in 2012 announced the program in response to the civil war that broke out there the year prior. The designation was extended multiple times, including by the first Trump administration. Government data indicates nearly 4,000 Syrians in the U.S. had TPS protections as of the end of March.
Since its creation by Congress in 1990, TPS has been used by Democratic and Republican administrations to offer a temporary safe haven to foreigners from nations dealing with an armed conflict, environmental disaster or other crises. It allows recipients to work and live in the U.S. legally, but does not directly give them a path to permanent legal status.
The Biden administration expanded TPS eligibility to a record number of migrants from crisis-stricken countries, including many who crossed the U.S. southern border illegally.
The second Trump administration has sought to dismantle most TPS programs, moving to terminate the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Pro-immigrant advocates have called the effort the largest de-documentation campaign in U.S. history, challenging the terminations in federal courts across the country.
Trump administration officials have argued that TPS designations have been extended for far too long by Democratic administrations, despite the temporary nature of the policy. It has also argued conditions in many of the affected countries have improved or that the programs are magnets for illegal immigration.
