Members of Congress call on Biden to expand protection from deportation for Nicaraguans

A congressional bipartisan group is calling on the Biden administration to expand deportation relief for Nicaraguans in the United States, arguing that people cannot return safely because of dire conditions in the Central American country.

The Miami Herald and McClatchy recently reported that Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said the agency has “no intention right now to re-designate Nicaragua for Temporary Protected Status,” the program that allows people from countries in turmoil who are already in the U.S. to legally work and live here.

“A Temporary Protected Status redesignation for Nicaragua would undoubtedly save lives and be one of the most consequential immigration policies to date for the administration,” said a letter the lawmakers sent the administration on Wednesday.

The government first designated TPS for Nicaragua in January 1999 in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch, which killed more than 11,000 people and devastated Central America. There were 4,250 TPS recipients from Nicaragua in 2021, according to DHS data. But Nicaraguans who have arrived in the U.S. in the past nearly 25 years are not eligible.

In June, the Biden administration reversed the Trump administration’s termination of the protections for Nicaragua and extended them for another 18 months. A TPS extension renews the protections for current beneficiaries, but does not change the cut off date, which would allow more people to become eligible for the program. The lawmakers said that the extension “falls short of the response needed to address the multiple ongoing and emergency crises.”

The congressional letter also follows the Biden administration’s recent decision to expand TPS protections to an additional 472,000 Venezuelans. Immigration advocates and lawmakers have commended the move, but say Nicaragua also merits a redesignation. This year, the Biden administration has also expanded TPS for Cameroon, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Sudan, and South Sudan.

Florida U.S. Reps. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Maria Elvira Salazar and Maxwell Frost, along with Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, led the writing of the letter, which 44 Congress members signed. This includes Florida Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Darren Soto, Frederica Wilson, and Kathy Castor.

Nicaraguans have experienced political repression, environmental disasters and economic woes in recent years, leading over 260,000 people to flee as of June 2022, according to the United Nations. In recent years, President Daniel Ortega has cracked down on the media and jailed his opposition. This year alone, the government has stripped hundreds of their citizenship and sent 222 political prisoners to the the United States. The country also experienced back-to-back hurricanes in 2020 that destroyed its northern Caribbean coasts, home to the indigenous Miskito people.

“We expect that a closer examination of the dire humanitarian situation in Nicaragua and the uncertainty of thousands who reside in the United States... will lead to a finding that TPS redesignation is necessary,” the letter says.

Nicaraguans have fled to neighboring Costa Rica as well as Panama and the U.S., among other countries, in recent years. In fiscal year 2022 alone U.S Customs and Border Protection had nearly 164,000 encounters with Nicaraguan nationals at the U.S.-Mexico border. Between Oct. 2022 and Aug. 2023, that number was almost 98,000.

The Biden administration launched new parole processes earlier this year so Nicaraguans, Haitians, Cubans, and Venezuelans could legally come to the United States for a two-year period. But Texas, Florida, and other Republican-led states filed a lawsuit asking the federal courts to declare the new paroles unconstitutional. The federal lawmakers argued in Wednesday’s letter that the legal uncertainty around the parole programs are another reason to expand TPS for Nicaragua.

The lawmakers addressed the correspondence to President Joe Biden, as well as to Mayorkas, who has the legal authority to designate TPS, and U.S. Citizenship and Services Director Ur Jaddou, the head of the agency that processes and approves TPS applications.

South Florida activists and officials have held a year-long campaign to redesignate Nicaragua for TPS. They have hosted roundtables, sent postcards to Mayorkas, and written public letters signed by hundreds of organizations. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava also penned a recent editorial asking the Biden administration to expand the protection for the Central American country.

Wednesday’s letter is one of several federal lawmakers have sent the Biden administration. Cherfilus-McCormick and Castro sent another one in February. Last July, U.S. Sens. Bob Menendez, Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Dick Durbin led one, and Charlie Christ, the former Florida Rep. and previous state governor, delivered one signed by several South Florida lawmakers.

“We believe this would be a missed opportunity to stand up for the values of human rights, democracy, and compassion for communities around the United States,” the letter said.