The comprehensive immigration overhaul U.S. President Donald Trump desires is still out of reach, but the president continues to make progress restricting immigration through decisions that don't require congressional support. Most recently, on Jan. 8, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security refused to extend temporary protected status (TPS) to around 200,000 Salvadorans residing in the United States. The move ends legal concessions — namely the right to work and reside in the country — granted to Salvadoran recipients of TPS and leaves them vulnerable to deportation after a deadline to depart in September 2019.
TPS is a humanitarian, non-immigrant visa category established by the Immigration Act of 1990. Salvadoran nationals first became eligible for TPS protection during El Salvador's civil war in the 1980s and then again after the country's 2001 earthquake. As a result, many Salvadorans have been in the United States under TPS for decades. The Trump administration's decision to end TPS programs (the Haitian and Nicaraguan designation was allowed to expire and the Honduran one is assumed to be next) is part of a wider move to restrict both legal and illegal immigration. The administration has also enacted various initiatives to increase enforcement of domestic immigration law and has moved to limit immigration through family and employment-based categories by ordering greater scrutiny of visa petitions. Allowing TPS protections to lapse is part of a move to restrict overall immigration and deport as many removable immigrants as possible.
But the administration's attempts to restrict immigration may not last if they are not codified into law. Many of the moves so far enacted by the Trump administration could be rescinded by Trump's successor through executive orders. Because of this, the Trump administration will press for wider immigration reform this year. If Congress joins the White House drive to revamp legal immigration, Trump's policies will have a better chance of outliving his presidency. However, achieving a comprehensive reform of the U.S. immigration system will be politically difficult.
Still, the administration will demand a broad range of reforms. These include a push to move away from granting visas on the basis of family ties and toward a more selective, restrictive system that would base visa grants on professional merit. In addition, the administration will attempt to use an extension of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) as a bargaining chip to secure more funding for border security measures, such as hiring more border patrol agents or constructing more barriers. But many of the White House's demands will go unmet. Because Republicans lack a sizable majority in the Senate committed to immigration reform, they will need to compromise to bring some Democrats on board in exchange for votes on spending measures. However, if a major reform effort becomes plausible, it will likely face a backlash in the form of lobbying and lawsuits from private companies that risk losing thousands of employees.
The White House push for a more selective immigration policy is unlikely to bear fruit. Instead, it's more likely that the administration will press on toward finding as many ways as possible to roll back legal protections for documented and undocumented migrants without congressional approval. Meanwhile, it won't give up its attempts this year to obtain more funding for border security or to negotiate and draft legislation to alter the landscape of legal immigration.
