New House Report Reveals Massive Surge in TPS Use Under Biden

The number of immigrants shielded from deportation under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program has skyrocketed under the Biden administration, according to a new House Judiciary Committee report.

TPS, a Clinton-era program originally created to grant short-term protection to individuals from countries facing armed conflicts or natural disasters, has seen its numbers swell to over 1.4 million beneficiaries from 16 countries as of January 2025. For context, this is nearly four times the approximate 410,000 under the Trump administration, which had sought to restrict the program.

The report highlights that over one million individuals were added to TPS during the Biden administration's tenure. It critiques this expansion, suggesting that what was meant to be a "temporary" solution has become a "permanent, automatically renewed designation" for some countries, with certain designations stretching on for decades despite improved conditions in those regions.

Significant increases in TPS designations came from Haiti and Venezuela. As of January 2025, there are 614,044 Venezuelans with TPS protections, representing nearly half of all current beneficiaries. Notably, 95% of these individuals entered the United States without a visa, either illegally or through humanitarian parole. Similarly, TPS beneficiaries from Haiti surged from 55,000 in January 2021 to over 342,000 in January 2025, with 91% lacking a visa upon entry.

The report also alleges instances of fraud, claiming that some individuals exploited the system by reporting one nationality for parole purposes and another to qualify for TPS. Specifically, it cited 99 Afghans who were later granted TPS as Haitian nationals—a curious geographical leap, to say the least.

While the Biden administration bore the brunt of the criticism, the report also noted that prior administrations had "abused [TPS] for decades." However, it accused the current administration of expanding the program to "hundreds of thousands of new aliens," including those who entered illegally, as part of a broader effort to hinder the Trump administration's immigration enforcement policies.

In a sharp contrast to Biden’s expansion, the Trump administration recently took steps to scale back TPS protections. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the administration's intent to return TPS to its original "temporary" purpose. This included revoking the TPS designation for over 300,000 Venezuelan nationals last month and vacating extensions for Haitian beneficiaries.

Despite these moves, the House Judiciary Committee called for further action, emphasizing the need to "root out fraud" and end TPS designations it deemed inappropriate or overextended. The committee described Noem's recent decisions as a "critical first step" but argued that Congress must step in to enact stronger reforms to prevent future abuse of the program.