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Top 3 Things Biden Should Do Before He Leaves Office
By Josh Leach on December 3, 2024
Donald Trump won the November 5 election on sweeping threats to violate human rights and undermine democratic norms. His incoming administration’s plans reportedly include: (1) deploying the U.S. military to carry out “mass deportations”; (2) pulling the U.S. government out of a global climate agreement; and (3) ending temporary protected status for immigrants who fled countries facing humanitarian emergencies—to name just a few.
Joe Biden cannot stop Trump from trying to implement these plans. But he can take steps, in the final weeks of his presidency, to make it harder for the incoming president to carry out his cruel agenda fully. Here are the top three things Biden should do, in the handful of weeks before Trump returns to the White House, to safeguard human rights:
- Expand Protections for Immigrant Communities at Risk
Trump’s team has made clear that they plan immediately to end Biden’s humanitarian parole program for immigrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua. They have also declared their intent to eliminate temporary protected status (TPS)—which grants relief from deportation for people whose home countries are facing humanitarian disasters; though this status would be harder to roll back than parole.
Regrettably, Trump as president would have broad authority to end many forms of executive immigration relief. And with his administration openly vowing “mass deportations,” people who have signed up for these programs may be first in their cross-hairs. After all, beneficiaries of parole and TPS are already known to the government—so they could be some of the first targets of Trump’s deportation machine.
However, Trump would likely encounter legal hurdles if he tried to sweepingly eliminate TPS. After all, it is a Congressionally-created program. To end it, the executive branch needs to show they are acting on some rational basis—not out of sheer racism and xenophobia. For this reason, the last time Trump tried to revoke TPS, his plans were tied up in court.
- Redesignate Nicaragua and Sudan for Temporary Protected Status (TPS)
Biden should therefore expand temporary protected status for immigrants who are on the front lines of Trump’s deportation push. While this expanded TPS would not provide a perfect shield against deportation, it would at least create a much stronger legal basis to resist Trump’s efforts. Two obvious places to start are for Biden to re-designate Nicaragua and Sudan for TPS.
Nicaragua should be a top priority because—unlike the other nationalities who benefitted from Biden’s parole program—Nicaraguans do not already have a recent TPS designation that they can fall back on. Furthermore, the Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega’s ongoing attacks on the human rights of dissidents more than justify granting protected status to people who might otherwise be deported to his hands.
Sudan, meanwhile, is in the grip of one of the worst humanitarian crises on the globe. If any conditions justify TPS, Sudan is an obvious candidate. Biden should therefore issue a new TPS designation for Sudan before he leaves office, since the existing designation does not cover people who have only recently escaped this conflict.
- Reverse Anti-Asylum Policies Providing a Launch Pad for Trump’s Agenda
As a recent New York Times article points out, Biden’s own anti-asylum restrictions at the border may provide a basis for Trump’s mass deportation push. After all, Trump has repeatedly declared his intent to undermine asylum by restoring policies from his first term, like Remain in Mexico, that made it harder for people to seek this status. Yet, Biden’s own current anti-asylum ban in some ways already goes even further in denying access to protection.
These rules give a spurious appearance of legality to Trump’s plans to attack asylum—even though U.S. law and international treaties both say that the government must allow people to seek asylum at the border. Biden should undo these cruel and lawless restrictions, which have already returned countless people to danger.
To be sure, these steps cannot provide perfect safeguards in the face of an incoming administration that is openly committed to defying norms. But the reality of Trump’s threats is no reason for Biden to remain passive in the last weeks of his presidency. He still has the power to leave a legacy of upholding human rights—specifically by providing communities the tools they need to push back against Trump’s agenda. He should seize this opportunity before it’s too late.
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Image credit: Shutterstock (Jonah Elkowitz)
