Democrats tell Biden to let Palestinians stay in the U.S. as the Gaza war rages: More than 100 lawmakers urge White House to grant them protected immigration status
- The TPS program allows people from war-torn or crisis-ridden countries to legally live and work in the US, but does not grant them permanent residency
- DED prevents immigrants from such countries from being deported for a certain period of time
Democrats across Congress are calling on President Biden to grant Palestinians access to the US on humanitarian grounds as the war in Gaza continues.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., along with Reps. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Was., led a letter from 103 colleagues to the president asking for grant the Palestinian territories Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and/or authorize Deferred Forced Departure (DED) for Palestinians already living in the US
The TPS program allows people from war- or crisis-affected countries to live and work legally in the U.S., but does not grant them permanent residency.
It offers nationals of countries in the US an 18-month reprieve and can be extended indefinitely.
DED prevents unlawful immigrants from such countries from being deported for a certain period of time.
Palestinian doctor Hassan Zain al Din, who travels on his bicycle from one makeshift shelter to another to treat displaced patients and provide medicine
A rocket explodes in Gaza City during an Israeli airstrike
Countries that currently have TPS include: Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, Burma, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Venezuela, Nepal, Nicaragua, Kuwait, Cameroon and Sudan.
“In light of the ongoing armed conflict, Palestinians already in the United States should not be forced to return to the Palestinian territories, consistent with President Biden’s stated commitment to protect Palestinian civilians,” the lawmakers wrote .
According to statistics from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there were approximately 7,200 Palestinians here on temporary visas in 2022.
“While the number of non-immigrant visas issued cannot provide an exact approximation of the number of Palestinians who would qualify for TPS or DED, it makes clear that the number of beneficiaries would be small while the benefit could be lifesaving,” the spokesperson said . letter read.
More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict with Israel, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel launched a bloody counter-offensive after a Hamas attack on October 7 killed about 1,400 Israelis and took more than 200 hostage.
According to the United Nations, about 1.5 million of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents have been displaced. Neighboring countries such as Egypt and Jordan have refused to accept any more Palestinians.
Palestinians search for survivors after an Israeli airstrike on buildings in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip
Israeli soldiers make their way towards the Israeli border with Gaza, amid the ongoing ground invasion against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in southern Israel, November 8, 2023
Israeli forces are now advancing ‘deep inside’ Gaza City, where they are fighting intense and bloody battles against Hamas terrorists. Israel blames the civilian casualties on Hamas hiding among civilian hotspots.
The Israeli military said Hamas militants fired anti-tank rockets at Israeli forces from nearby hospitals and that soldiers had found weapons hidden in a school in northern Gaza.
The military wing of Hamas, which has ruled the small, densely populated area for 16 years, said its fighters inflicted heavy losses and damage on advancing Israeli forces. It was not possible to verify the battlefield claims of either side.
Israel says 30 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began, and Palestinian militants have continued to fire rockets into Israel daily.
The death toll on both sides is unprecedented in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence and continues to raise fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East.