Despite the ongoing COVID-19\npandemic which has cost millions of Americans their jobs, the incoming Biden\nadministration seems determined to increase immigration levels. One of the avenues\nby which they may seek to increase immigration is through an unconventional\napproach that grants special immigration benefits to those deemed to be victims\nof climate change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent years, addressing climate change has become a cornerstone issue for the Democratic Party and may become a legitimate avenue seized upon by the Biden administration, under pressure<\/a> from advocacy groups, as a pretext to dramatically raise immigration levels and rollback Trump administration immigration policies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One way the Biden\nadministration may exploit climate change to increase immigration levels is by\noffering Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in larger numbers to those impacted\nby events allegedly caused by climate change, which include hurricanes, rising\nsea levels, and extreme droughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TPS<\/a> allows non-resident foreigners whose homelands are beset by civil strife or effects of a natural disaster of \u201cextraordinary and temporary conditions\u201d to remain temporarily in the U.S. The program spares illegal aliens from deportation and it also provides them a quasi-legal status and work permits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But since its implementation, the program has been\nabused by both Democrat and Republican administrations that grant repeated\nextensions, even though the conditions in their country of origin have improved.\nDespite having the word \u201ctemporary\u201d in its program name, TPS has become a de\nfacto amnesty for hundreds of thousands of individuals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even after the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to reform<\/a> and in some cases terminate the designation for some countries, there are still \u00a0411,000<\/a> TPS beneficiaries in the U.S. from ten countries: El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. That number is only expected to rise under the Biden administration\u2019s vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President-elect Joe Biden has already made clear<\/a> that his administration will \u201corder an immediate review of TPS for vulnerable populations who cannot find safety in their countries ripped apart by violence or disaster. [It] will protect TPS and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) holders from being returned to countries that are unsafe.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Under this broad vision and his desire to infuse<\/a> \u201cclimate change into just about everything the government does,\u201d the number of immigrants coming into the country could swell significantly. Even more startling, Biden also plans to offer TPS recipients a pathway to citizenship<\/a> which would grant permanent residency and be the anthesis of the \u201ctemporary\u201d program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A second way the Biden\nadministration may exploit climate change to increase immigration levels is to raise\nthe annual refugee cap by classifying more individuals as victims of climate\nchange. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden plans to increase the annual refugee cap to 125,000<\/a>\u2014a more than 730% increase over the current cap set by the Trump administration. It is a near certainty that these expanded caps will be reached. While serving as Vice President in the Obama administration, the annual ceiling for refugee admissions was reached in\u00a0each of his last four years<\/a> in office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Migrants\u2014especially from Central America\u2014 already view President-elect Biden as someone who will likely grant them U.S. protections and benefits after a natural disaster. Two recent hurricanes that struck Central America have already convinced individuals to form caravans<\/a>\u00a0 heading to the U.S. so that they can take advantage of Biden\u2019s anticipated laissez-faire immigration policies\u2014especially those in response to climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Biden administration\u2019s views\non the relationship between immigration and climate change jeopardize the\nintegrity of the nation\u2019s immigration system and will likely encourage more\nillegal immigration to the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The problems\nassociated with climate change cannot be addressed by implementing more mass\nmigration policies. Furthermore, it is irresponsible to see the Biden\nadministration use concerns regarding climate change as an excuse to advance\nthe political goals of radicals in the party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With the pandemic displacing\nmillions of American workers and seeing the health risks posed by large-scale migration,\nthe administration should look to address other policy initiatives that better\nbenefit the country. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has cost millions of Americans their jobs, the incoming Biden administration seems determined to increase immigration levels. One of the avenues by which they may seek to increase immigration is through an unconventional approach that grants special immigration benefits to those deemed to be victims of climate change. In<\/p>\n