Van Hollen, Cardin Lead Senate Call for Humanitarian Protections for Guatemalans Living in the U.S.

U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin (both D-Md.), along with more than a dozen other senators, wrote to President Joe Biden requesting that his administration “provide temporary humanitarian protections for Guatemalan nationals living in the United States.” The letter asks for the president to designate Temporary Protected Status for Guatemala or authorize Deferred Enforced Departure for Guatemalan nationals. 

“Guatemala presently faces significant and overlapping natural disasters leading to food insecurity, corruption, and violence that impede the ability of Guatemalan nationals currently in the United States to return home safely at this time. Guatemala has long experienced significant environmental disasters, which have worsened food insecurity and displaced a sizable amount of the population,” the senators wrote. “Providing these humanitarian protections will reinforce the relationship that the United States is developing with the new, democratically elected government under President Bernardo Arevalo” who “has committed to taking steps to try to ameliorate many of the conditions that have long been neglected by previous leaders.”

They added, “Despite the efforts underway under the new administration, a sober assessment of conditions in the country today would support the conclusion that Guatemala is unable to adequately handle the return of the significant number of nationals currently in the United States.”

Senators Van Hollen and Cardin have previously requested TPS designation for Guatemala in both 2021 and 2022.

Joining Senators Van Hollen and Cardin on this Senate letter are Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Martin Heinrich (D-Nev.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Mark Warner (D-Va.). Last month, Representative Lou Correa (D-Calif.-46) led a similar letter among House members.

Through the Immigration Act of 1990, Congress established the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program, where individuals may apply for TPS if Congress or the Secretary of Homeland Security issues a designation that “conditions in the country temporarily prevent the country’s nationals from returning safely.” Upon registration with and approval by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), TPS holders are protected from deportation and can receive work authorization. Only individuals already in the United States when a designation is announced are eligible to receive Temporary Protected Status.

Full text of the Senate letter is available here and below.

Dear President Biden,

We write to urgently request that your administration provide temporary humanitarian protections for Guatemalan nationals living in the United States by either designating the country for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or authorizing Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for Guatemalan nationals.

Today, the majority of Guatemalans who would benefit from the designation of TPS have lived in the United States for many years and are deeply integrated into the fabric of American families, communities, and local economies. Of the estimated 1,000,000 total potential beneficiaries of a TPS designation for Guatemala, approximately 300,000 arrived earlier than 2010 and have resided in the U.S. for more than fourteen years. An additional 260,000 arrived in the U.S. in the 2010s. Approximately 298,000 U.S. citizen children are estimated to live with these potential TPS beneficiaries nationwide.

Providing these humanitarian protections will reinforce the relationship that the United States is developing with the new, democratically elected government under President Bernardo Arevalo. President Arevalo has committed to taking steps to try to ameliorate many of the conditions that have long been neglected by previous leaders.

However, his new administration transmitted a letter in April 2024 to Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressing its request for a TPS designation, recognizing that it will take time for these steps to improve conditions. As noted in this letter, Guatemala presently faces significant and overlapping natural disasters leading to food insecurity, corruption, and violence that impede the ability of Guatemalan nationals currently in the United States to return home safely at this time.

Guatemala has long experienced significant environmental disasters, which have worsened food insecurity and displaced a sizable amount of the population. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification’s (IPC) most recent report on acute food insecurity in Guatemala, during the 2023 lean season from June to August, it was projected that nearly onequarter of the country’s population (4.3 million) experienced insecurity. Additionally, nearly half of Guatemalan children under 5 (46.5 percent) experience chronic malnutrition—the highest rate in Latin America and the sixth highest worldwide. 

Guatemala also faces other extraordinary and temporary conditions that prevent nationals from returning safely, such as widespread violence against marginalized communities including women and Indigenous people, corruption, and attacks on human rights defenders and journalists. These conditions are detailed in the State Department’s 2023 Human Rights Report. The State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) further details how drug trafficking organizations maintain significant influence over many parts of Guatemala, especially along its borders, and pose a threat to citizen safety.

Despite the efforts underway under the new administration, a sober assessment of conditions in the country today would support the conclusion that Guatemala is unable to adequately handle the return of the significant number of nationals currently in the United States.

Unlike TPS, which is an authority granted to the Secretary of Homeland Security by Congress, Deferred Enforced Departure is a presidential power derived from the constitutional authority in Article II to conduct foreign relations. There is precedent both for the use of DED to offer protection to people from a country where they would face political repression or serious threat to their lives if they were forced to return, as well as in recognition of the foreign policy interests of the United States. The use of the DED authority is an alternative route to protecting Guatemalan nationals in the United States at this time.

For the reasons discussed above, it is warranted and urgently necessary that your administration provide temporary humanitarian protections for Guatemalan nationals living in the United States by either designating the country for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or authorizing Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for Guatemalan nationals.

We thank you for your consideration of this request. 

Sincerely,