Democratic senator calls on Biden to protect illegal immigrants before Trump assumes office

Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto has urged Joe Biden to extend immigrants' TPS statuses to protect them from Donald Trump's mass deportation plans

Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto has urged Joe Biden to extend protections and work permits for illegal immigrants before Donald Trump assumes office. Referring to the president-elect's mass deportation plan, the 60-year-old called on the president to use his “power” to protect immigrants on Wednesday.

Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto has urged Joe Biden to protect illegal immigrants before Donald Trump assumes office(X)

Dem Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto urges Biden to protect illegal immigrants before Trump assumes office

“I remember the calls I would get in my office during the first Trump administration from families that were under threat because of the immigration chaos he created. President Biden has the power to protect immigrant families, and I'm calling on him to use it,” Masto wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The senator pointed to the use of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which allows those already living in the United States to obtain work permits. Administered by the Department of Homeland Security, the status also protects migrants from deportation.

Masto's tweet came just a day after she urged Biden to extend the immigrants' TPS statuses on Morning Joe. “They are part of our communities, and what the president can do is just take legal action to extend their TPS statuses,” she said on Tuesday's episode of the MSNBC show.

“But it's not just our TPS recipients. My hope is that the president, in the last two months, also quickly processes our DACA recipients' applications. We need to make sure our dreamers also have the ability to stay here, continue to be a part of the country that they grew up in,” the Democrat added.

While the first Trump administration failed its bid to reduce the use of TPS, the coming administration is expected to either terminate it or limit renewal processes, allowing the status to expire. During her Tuesday interview, the senator claimed that “nobody's safe.”

“They're going to engage in mass deportation, and nobody's safe,” Masto declared, adding, “So that's why I'm asking the administration to come in and take action that they can now to protect some of the immigrant community, TPS recipients and DACA recipients, make sure that at least we're bringing certainty to them and keeping their families together.”