Republican Senator Eric Schmitt revealed an interior memo by advisors Joe Biden, who in fresh weeks were to urge that he be protected from deportation even 3.1 million illegal migrants. According to the senator, it was about blocking the deportations announced by Donald Trump. The issue shows how migration policy becomes a tool for fighting for power, both sides of the Atlantic.
A note that was not meant to see the light of day
A Republican senator from Missouri, Eric Schmitt, made public a paper that he believed came from Joe Biden's last weeks of office. According to the politician, an interior memo prepared by a group of advisers to the outgoing president recommended a wide usage of the Provisional Protection position (TPS) to defend the maximum possible number of migrants residing in the US from expulsion without regular residence. The Senator indicated that the letter was dated January 2025, although mistakenly marked earlier.
Three million under the umbrella of security
According to Schmitt, recommendations included up to 3.1 million people. The most controversial component was to make completely fresh categories of protection for about 2.1 million migrants. The paper mentions the citizens of respective states: Venezuela (455,000), Nicaragua (464,000), Ecuador (600 thousand) and Guatemala (1.5 million), as well as smaller groups from Afghanistan, Sudan and Ukraine. The Senator pointed out that the examination of applications for TPS usually takes about six months, which he felt was an effort to bind the hands of the upcoming administration.
The position of TPS itself is an instrument designed for people fleeing natural disasters, war or political destabilisation. It gives a temporary work licence and protects against deportation, usually for 6, 12 or 18 months. Critics, however, argue that further extensions turn the temporary solution into practically permanent.
What truly came into force
The discrimination between recommendations and facts remains crucial. The most far-reaching proposals, namely the fresh appointments for Ecuador and Guatemala, have never been implemented. Nevertheless, as the senator says, the week after the submission of the memo, the Biden administration extended protection for nearly 1 million Venezuelan, El Salvador and Ukraine citizens. This means that the document, although mostly on paper, translated into a real decision involving hundreds of thousands of people.
Schmitt went further in interpretation. The politician claimed that re-establishment of Venezuelan protection could besides shield members of the Tren de Aragua gang from expulsion. However, this is his assessment, not the fact confirmed in the note itself, and it should be read anyway.
The another side is silent.
It is worth noting that there were no comments from the erstwhile president, his erstwhile colleagues and the Democratic organization in the available accounts. No version has yet been presented which would explain the note as a regular analysis of legal options alternatively than a ready-made political plan. Until specified an explanation appears, the image of the case is based in practice on 1 narrative, the 1 presented by the Republican Senator.
Migration as a tool of power
Regardless of the final scale of the phenomenon, the issue reveals a mechanics that should besides concern the European Atlantic. Humanitarian protection, designed for real danger, can be utilized as an instrument for the current political game and as a means of perpetuating the facts. For a country that loses control of who and under what conditions remains in its territory, the very sovereignty of migration decisions becomes the stake.
Poland and Europe are observing this dispute with attention, as they know well the migratory pressures and the temptation to set boundaries according to the immediate organization interest. The American note reminds us that those who enter the national community should find the clear rules and will of citizens, not the administrative fortitude in the last days of outgoing power.
Source: To Things
