CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) – Thursday the Biden Administration made some 470,000 migrants from Venezuela who arrived in the country since July 31st of this year, eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
TPS is an immigration designation now including 16 countries affected by war and other temporary conditions that make it unsafe or impossible to return migrants there. Massachusetts is one of the most affected states by this year’s influx of asylum seekers, U.S. Representative Richard Neal was asked if Biden made the right call.
Neal, telling 22News, “We have a real problem with immigration and I have never been for open borders, we need to know who’s in the country. So I think the Department of Labor is going to have to take a role here as well on monitoring precisely who it is that comes across the border.”
Friday, Governor Healey reacted saying the effort made by the administration is not enough, and that the federal government needs to step up.
Once granted, TPS status prevents removal or detainment based on immigration status, and allows asylum seekers to apply for work authorization, a process that right now is taking around 90 days.
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