Kaine, Cardin Criticize Decision To Prevent Syrians Fleeing Violence From Applying For Protected Status In U.S.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the Committee’s ranking member, released the following statement after the Trump Administration announced it would extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Syrians currently in the program, but failed to expand these protections to the Syrians fleeing violence who arrived in the United States after August 2016. Last week, Kaine and Cardin led nine of their colleagues in sending a letter to Secretaries Nielsen and Tillerson urging the Administration to both extend and re-designate TPS for Syria:

“While we welcome the extension of TPS, we are disappointed by the Administration’s failure to renew ‎the TPS designation for Syrians.  This decision means that innocent Syrian civilians fleeing violence and persecution will not be able to apply for protection in the United States. In her explanation of the decision to extend TPS, Secretary Nielsen unequivocally laid out the case for re-designation.  Given the magnitude of threats facing Syrian people – chemical weapons, barrel bombing, starvation, torture, ISIS, Russia, and Iran -- it takes incredible imagination to understand who President Trump thinks is worthy of safety.

“Once again, with this decision, the Trump Administration has demonstrated that ‘America First’ actually means America alone.”

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