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A newly-uncovered Biden White House memo from the administration’s final days revealed plans that could have expanded Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to more than 3 million noncitizens while acknowledging that previous court challenges had blocked many of President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the protections.
TPS is meant for foreign populations experiencing crises like political unrest or natural disasters, and while Trump has tried to end the “temporary” provisions for Haitians, Nepalese, Salvadorans and Sudanese people, lawsuits from pro-migrant advocates have halted most attempts.
“Stakeholders argue that granting TPS will potentially protect many vulnerable people from President-elect Trump’s planned mass deportations… They argue that these protections are likely to hold in court, and they are prepared to litigate efforts to terminate or slow down the implementation of TPS for specified nations by the Trump Administration,” read a section of the memo — acquired by Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.
SUPREME COURT WEIGHS TRUMP EFFORT TO TERMINATE TEMPORARY PROTECTIONS FOR HAITIAN, SYRIAN MIGRANTS
US President Joe Biden (L) and President-elect Donald Trump arrive for the inauguration ceremony where Donald Trump will sworn in as the 47th US President in the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (Melina MARA / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
“[P]rior federal litigation brought by advocates during the first Trump administration was successful in halting [its] efforts to terminate TPS, though that was due in large part to [its] failure to produce a factual record in support of termination, which is something that could be rectified,” the memo went on.
Schmitt said he obtained the memo from Archivist of the United States Edward Forst through his authority as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution.
BIRTH TOURISM COULD SOON CARRY A SEVERE NEW CONSEQUENCE FEW WOULD RISK: ‘EXISTENTIAL CRISIS’
President Joe Biden carries a milkshake while visiting Nantucket for the Thanksgiving holiday in 2023. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
“Biden tried to turn TPS into a 3.1-million-person deportation shield, protect Tren de Aragua members, and trap President Trump in years of litigation,” he said, adding the move directly betrayed the “will of the people” who ousted liberal Democrats from power the prior election.
“The most disturbing part, Biden’s ‘Senior Advisors’ recommended he create 2.1 million NEW TPS designees in the last few weeks of his presidency, despite admitting TPS applications take 6 months,” Schmitt added.
“Luckily, that never happened and we have been deporting Ecuadorians and Guatemalans.”
TRUMP’S ‘THIRD WORLD’ TRAVEL BAN COULD BECOME PERMANENT IF FIREBRAND REPUBLICAN LAWMAKER GETS HER WAY
CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO – APRIL 25: Hundreds of Venezuelan migrants try to cross the border by foot from Mexico to United States on April 25, 2023 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. About 4,000 people left Chiapas city on Apr. 23 to reach United States. (David Peinado/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Digital reached out to Biden, a former Biden official and Schmitt for additional comment.
Schmitt noted that one week after the January 2025 memo — which he said was erroneously dated “2024” — Biden extended TPS protections for nearly 1 million noncitizens, meaning its transmission still led to “a concrete, mass-migration action.”
Schmitt shared a clip of his recent floor remarks on a related topic, where he said the U.S. should not be a “get-rich-quick scheme for the third world” and that Americans don’t try to delay enforcement of squatters on their property in real-life.
The memo reminded Biden he gave TPS protections to Afghans, Cameroonians, Ethiopians, people from Burma, Lebanese, Ukrainians and Venezuelan nationals and repeatedly extended protections for Haitians.
Former President Joe Biden addresses from a podium. (AP Photo/Manuel Ceneta)
“The previous Administration unsuccessfully attempted to terminate TPS designations for Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti, El Salvador, Nepal, and Honduras. Courts issued preliminary injunctions blocking the Trump Administration’s actions,” it read. “Your administration took actions to resolve this litigation by either redesignating Haiti or rescinding the terminations.”
The memo noted that Trump had said during the 2024 campaign he intended to revoke TPS protections for Haitians and predicted his incoming administration would likely seek to rescind additional TPS designations.
A chart in the memo estimated potential new TPS eligibility for roughly 1.5 million Guatemalans, 600,000 Ecuadorians, 464,000 Nicaraguans, 455,000 Venezuelans, and smaller populations from Ukraine, Sudan, and Afghanistan — figures Schmitt said totaled more than 3.1 million people.
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Joe Biden speaks during the opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Illinois (Kent NISHIMURA / AFP via Getty Images))
The memo said Biden’s “senior team” had also received requests for varying types of new TPS-related actions before Trump would take office from Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Alex Padilla, D-Calif.
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“In addition, some stakeholders are requesting that your Administration designate nationals from new countries, most notably Ecuador and Guatemala, for TPS,” it stated.
While the proposals outlined in the memo were never fully implemented, the document offers a rare glimpse into the immigration options Biden advisers presented as Trump prepared to return to the White House promising mass deportations.
