Senate Democrats press Biden to strengthen immigration protections before Trump takes office

Washington — A group of Senate Democrats is pressing President Biden to work to “protect immigrant families” in the final weeks of his presidency, with President-elect Donald Trump set to take office next month.

“As Senators who represent diverse states across our nation and who collectively represent millions of immigrant families, we write to express our deep concern about the threat the incoming administration poses to immigrants in our communities,” the group of senators, led by Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, wrote in a letter to the president Monday.

The senators cited Trump’s threat of mass deportations that they say will “jeopardize the safety and security” of millions of families, “sow deep distrust and fear” in the communities and “destabilize the U.S. economy.” And they urged Mr. Biden to take a number of actions in advance of Trump’s inauguration, stressing that the “window to secure and finalize your administration’s policies is closing rapidly.”

“We urge you to act decisively between now and the inauguration of the President-elect to complete the important work of the past four years and protect immigrant families,” Durbin said in the letter, which was also signed by Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico and Alex Padilla of California.

Among the requests, the group asked the president to prioritize redesignating and extending Temporary Protected Status for all eligible countries, which allows migrants from countries experiencing unsafe conditions to legally reside in the U.S. The group also asked the president to expedite the processing of benefit requests for recipients of DACA, the program for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children and have been granted protection from deportation.

The push comes as Trump has made clear his intention to pursue a radical shift on immigration policy, which became a key part of his campaign as he promised to target both unauthorized and legal immigrants with unprecedented measures. 

In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, reiterated a number of the pledges, including that he’s “absolutely” still planning to end birthright citizenship on Day One of his presidency. He also made clear that he plans to carry out his mass deportations pledge, beginning with criminals. 

When asked by host Kristen Welker whether it’s possible to deport everyone who’s in the U.S. illegally, Trump responded that “you have no choice.” He said his administration would be “starting with the criminals” before others, noting that “we’re going to see how it goes.”

On DACA recipients, known as Dreamers, Trump said he would work with Democrats on a plan, claiming that “Republicans are very open to the Dreamers.”

“I want to be able to work something out,” Trump said, while indicating that he wants the DACA recipients to be able to stay. Legislative efforts to codify the DACA program have failed for more than a decade, and Republican-led states have filed numerous lawsuits over the years arguing the program is unconstitutional. The president-elect tried to end the program during his first administration.

On immigrant families more broadly, Trump emphasized that he doesn’t “want to be breaking up families,” saying that “the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back.”

In their letter, the senators noted that while they support “commonsense” border security measures, they “will continue to oppose any policies that contradict our nation’s core values.” 

contributed to this report.