Biden administration shields Afghans in the U.S from deportation
Temporary Protected Status will allow eligible Afghans to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation.
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Camilo Montoya-Galvez is an award-winning reporter covering immigration for CBS News, where his reporting is featured across multiple CBS News and Stations platforms, including the CBS News 24/7, CBSNews.com and CBS News Radio.
Montoya-Galvez also worked as part of CBS News' team of 2024 political campaign reporters.
Montoya-Galvez joined CBS News in 2018 and has reported hundreds of articles on immigration, the U.S. immigration policy, the contentious debate on the topic, and connected issues. He's landed exclusive stories and developed in-depth reports on the impact of significant policy changes. He's also extensively reported on the people affected by a complex immigration system.
Before joining CBS News, Montoya-Galvez spent over two years as an investigative unit producer and assignment desk editor at Telemundo's television station in New York City. His work at Telemundo earned three New York Emmy Awards.
Earlier, he was the founding editor of After the Final Whistle, an online bilingual publication featuring stories that highlight soccer's role in contemporary society.
He was born in Cali, Colombia's third-largest city, and raised in northern New Jersey.
He earned a bachelor's degree in media and journalism studies/Spanish from Rutgers University.
Temporary Protected Status will allow eligible Afghans to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation.
Expulsions of migrants under a pandemic-era restriction put in place in 2020 rose by 17% to 91,513, representing 55% of all border encounters in February.
A federal court last week had ruled that the administration could not exempt unaccompanied children from a Trump-era border restriction.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered the swiftest refugee displacement crisis in Europe since World War II, prompting more than 3 million people to flee the country.
Current rules instruct ICE officers to detain immigrants convicted of serious crimes, migrants who recently crossed a U.S. border illegally, and those deemed to pose a national security risk, such as suspected terrorists.
A Ukrainian mother and her children fleeing the Russian invasion were turned back at the U.S. border by officials who cited a Trump-era restriction, according to the family's lawyer.
It's unclear if the administration will start to expel unaccompanied minors in light of Friday's court order.
Both the Trump and Biden administrations have said the Title 42 border policy is necessary to control the spread of COVID-19 inside migrant holding facilities.
Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, will allow eligible Ukrainians already living in the U.S. to apply for deportation protections and work permits.
The deportation pause comes as the Biden administration faces intensifying pressure to allow Ukranians living in the U.S. to apply for deportation protections and work permits.
Citing Russia's military offensive in Ukraine, a bipartisan group of senators said the Biden administration should grant Temporary Protected Status to Ukrainians in the U.S.
The deportation protections would only apply to Ukrainians already in the U.S., not new arrivals.
More than one-third of 67,380 Afghans processed at U.S. military sites following their evacuation from Afghanistan have been resettled in Texas, California and Virginia.
Approximately 76,000 Afghan evacuees have joined their new homes in over 200 communities across the U.S.
President Biden has denounced the Trump-era border policy as draconian and inhumane.