The president’s government Joe Biden decided not to extend the temporary stay permit granted to migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua who have a sponsor in the United States once it has expired, with one month left before the elections.
The decision has been known due to an update on a page of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (USCIS).
In October 2022, the US government granted permission for a quota of Venezuelans to enter legally, as long as they passed an investigation into their criminal records, had a sponsor in the country who provided financial support and were vaccinated.
In January 2023, it expanded the measure to Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua.
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Until the end of August 2024, 530,000 people arrived legally in the country taking advantage of this processaccording to Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
It is more than 110,000 Cubans, more than 210,000 Haitians, almost 93,000 Nicaraguans and almost 117,000 Venezuelansprecise.
The temporary stay permit, known in English as “parole”, “will automatically end at the end of its period” of two years, reads the USCIS website.
“If you have not applied for legal status or a period of authorized stay, you must leave the United States before your period of authorized parole expires,” it warns.
To regularize their situation, natives of those countries have several options.
Venezuelans who arrived before July 31, 2023 and Haitians who have been in the country since before June 3, 2024 can request an immigration protection that grants them a residence and work permit, known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
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Nicaraguans cannot benefit from this immigration protection. Many will be forced to request asylum.
But it is a long and more complex procedure since they must pass the so-called credible fear interview, in which officials evaluate whether there is a possibility that the person will be persecuted or tortured if they return to their country.
There are other legal avenues such as family reunification or work visas, but they also require meeting specific conditions.
“Deportation process”
Cubans can apply for permanent residence if they have been in the United States for one year and one day thanks to the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1996.
Those who do not regularize their situation in time are exposed to “a deportation process.” after their ‘parole’ period expires” and begin to “accumulate illegal presence in the United States,” the USCIS update warns.
This has always been a temporary stay permit, but many migrants hoped that the government would extend it as it has done for Ukrainians and Afghans.
Irregular migration is one of the central issues of the presidential elections on November 5, which dispute the former president Republican Donald Trump and the country’s vice president, Democrat Kamala Harris.
Trump, 78, threatens mass expulsions of migrants if he regains the keys to the White House.
Despite his anti-immigrant rhetoric, voters appear to trust him more than Harris to address illegal immigration, according to polls.
Republicans accuse the Democratic government of lacking firmness and of having been slow to close the border with Mexico to migrants seeking asylum when a limit on irregular crossings is exceeded.
The 59-year-old vice president promises to act firmly on immigration and accuses Trump of having boycotted a bipartisan bill that would restrict the flow of migrants and increase border agents.
