1 million migrants in the US rely on temporary protections that Trump could target

NEW YORK (AP) — Maribel Hidalgo fled her native Venezuela a year ago with a 1-year-old son, trudging for days through Panama's Darien Gap, then riding the rails across Mexico to the United States.

They were living in the U.S. when the Biden administration announced Venezuelans would be offered Temporary Protected Status, which allows people already in the United States to stay and work legally if their homelands are deemed unsafe. People from 17 countries, including Haiti, Afghanistan, Sudan and recently Lebanon, are currently receiving such relief.

But President-elect Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, have promised mass deportations and suggested they would scale back the use of TPS that covers more than 1 million immigrants. They have highlighted unfounded claims that Haitians who live and work legally in Springfield, Ohio, as TPS holders were eating their neighbors’ pets. Trump also amplified disputed claims made by the mayor of Aurora, Colorado, about Venezuelan gangs taking over an apartment complex.

“What Donald Trump has proposed doing is we’re going to stop doing mass parole,” Vance said at an Arizona rally in October, mentioning a separate immigration status called humanitarian parole that is also at risk. “We’re going to stop doing mass grants of Temporary Protected Status.”

Hidalgo wept as she discussed her plight with a reporter as her son, now 2, slept in a stroller outside the New York migrant hotel where they live. At least 7.7 million people have fled political violence and economic turmoil in Venezuela in one of the biggest displacements worldwide.

“My only hope was TPS,” Hidalgo said. “My worry, for example, is that after everything I suffered with my son so that I could make it to this country, that they send me back again.”

Venezuelans along with Haitians and Salvadorans are the largest group of TPS beneficiaries and have the most at stake.

Haiti's international airport shut down this week after gangs opened fire at a commercial flight landing in Port-Au-Prince while a new interim prime minister was sworn in. The Federal Aviation Administration barred U.S. airlines from landing there for 30 days.

“It's creating a lot of anxiety," said Vania André, editor-in-chief for The Haitian Times, an online newspaper covering the Haitian diaspora. “Sending thousands of people back to Haiti is not an option. The country is not equipped to handle the widespread gang violence already and cannot absorb all those people.”

Designations by the Homeland Security secretary offer relief for up to 18 months but are extended in many cases. The designation for El Salvador ends in March. Designations for Sudan, Ukraine, and Venezuela end in April. Others expire later.

Federal regulations say a designation can be terminated before it expires, but that has never happened, and it requires 60 days' notice.

TPS is similar to the lesser-known Deferred Enforcement Departure Program that Trump used to reward Venezuelan exile supporters as his first presidency was ending, shielding 145,000 from deportation for 18 months.

Attorney Ahilan T. Arulanantham, who successfully challenged Trump's earlier efforts to allow TPS designations for several countries to expire, doesn't doubt the president-elect will try again.

“It's possible that some people in his administration will recognize that stripping employment authorization for more than a million people, many of whom have lived in this country for decades, is not good policy" and economically disastrous, said Arulanantham, who teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, and helps direct its Center for Immigration Law and Policy. “But nothing in Trump’s history suggests that they would care about such considerations.”

Courts blocked designations from expiring for Haiti, Sudan, Nicaragua and El Salvador until well into President Joe Biden's term. Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas then renewed them.

Arulanantham said he “absolutely” could see another legal challenge, depending on what the Trump administration does.

Congress established TPS in 1990, when civil war was raging in El Salvador. Members were alarmed to learn some Salvadorans were tortured and executed after being deported from the U.S. Other designations protected people during wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kuwait, from genocidal violence in Rwanda, and after volcanic eruptions in Montserrat, a British territory in the Caribbean, in 1995 and 1997.

A designation is not a pathway to U.S. permanent residence or citizenship, but applicants can try to change their status through other immigration processes.

Advocates are pressing the White House for a new TPS designation for Nicaraguans before Biden leaves office. Less than 3,000 are still covered by the temporary protections issued in 1998 after Hurricane Mitch battered the country. People who fled much later under oppression from President Daniel Ortega’s government don’t enjoy the same protection from deportation.

“It's a moral obligation” for the Biden administration, said Maria Bilbao, of the American Friends Service Committee.

Elena, a 46-year-old Nicaraguan who has lived in the United States illegally for 25 years, hopes Biden moves quickly.

“He should do it now,” said Elena, who lives in Florida and insisted only her first name be used because she fears deportation. “Not in January. Not in December. Now.”

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Snow reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writer Gisela Salomon in Miami contributed to this report.

For more coverage of immigration: https://apnews.com/hub/immigration

Maribel Hidalgo, 23, an immigrant from Venezuela, pushes a stroller carrying her son, Daniel, 2, outside the Roosevelt Hotel immigration shelter in New York on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)

FILE - Yareliz Mendez, 29, with the Florida Immigrant Coalition, speaks during a news conference calling for a new designation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for migrants from Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras, in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) offices, Wednesday, July 26, 2023, in Miramar, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)

FILE - A man shows bullet casings he collected from the streets near his home days after an armed gang attack on Pont-Sonde, Haiti, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph, File)

FILE - Wilda Brooks of West Palm Beach, Fla., holds up a sign reading "We don't eat pets," during a rally by members of South Florida's Haitian-American community to condemn hate speech and misinformation about Haitian immigrants, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, in North Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

FILE - Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

Maribel Hidalgo, 23, of Caracas, Venezuela, stands for a portrait with her son, Daniel, 2, outside a shelter for immigrants in New York, on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares retreated in Asia on Thursday after a lackluster finish on Wall Street following a report showing an uptick last month in inflation in the U.S.

The dollar was trading near 156 Japanese yen, up from 155.49 yen, reflecting expectations that the dollar will gain against other currencies under the policies anticipated with the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.4% to 38,535.70 and the Kospi in South Korea gave up 0.1% to 2,415.23. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.4% to 8,224.00.

Chinese markets tumbled, with the Hang Seng in Hong Kong falling 2% to 19,435.95. The Shanghai Composite index lost 1.7% to 3,379.84.

Bangkok's SET lost 0.2% and Taiwan's Taiex fell 0.6%, while the Sensex in India shed 0.2%.

A stronger dollar tends to put strain on other economies, noted Stephen Innes of Capital Economics. The Thai baht has also weakened against the dollar since the U.S. election, as has the Chinese yuan, or renminbi, which now stands at 7.2245 per dollar and was trading at about 7 yuan per dollar in early October.

“For Asia, particularly those economies closely linked to China, the dollar's dominance is poised to become an economic wrecking ball,” he said in a commentary. “Countries with hefty USD-denominated debt are bracing for impact,” he added.

On Wednesday, U.S. stocks drifted to a mixed finish after the latest inflation update boosted hopes that a cut to interest rates next month will bring more help for the economy.

The S&P 500 was nearly unchanged, gaining 1.39 points to 5,985.38, up less than 0.1%. It was its first loss since a big rally erupted after the Nov. 5 Election Day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.1% to 43,958.19, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3% to 19,230.74.

U.S. consumer inflation accelerated in October to 2.6% from 2.4%, but an underlying measure called “core inflation” did not rise. Such core inflation can be a better predictor of future trends, economists say, so the figures added to expectations for more help from the Federal Reserve.

The Fed began cutting interest rates from their two-decade high in September to keep the job market hummin g after bringing inflation nearly all the way down to its target of 2%. It cut again earlier this month, and traders now see an improved probability of roughly 80% for a third cut at its meeting next month, according to data from CME Group.

Those expectations sent the yield for the two-year Treasury down to 4.27% from 4.34% late Tuesday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which also takes future economic growth more into account, rose to 4.45%, up from 4.43% late Tuesday.

But T rump’s victory in the presidential election has raised uncertainty over the Fed's future course. Economists say his preferences for lower tax rates, higher tariffs and less regulation could ultimately lead to higher U.S. government debt and inflation, but also bring faster economic growth.

While lower interest rates can give a boost to the economy and to prices for investments, they can also fuel inflation.

Rivian Automotive jumped 13.7% after the electric-vehicle company gave more details about a joint venture it’s entering with Volkswagen Group that they had previously announced. The deal’s total size could be worth up to $5.8 billion, which is more than the $5 billion the companies had previously said.

Spirit Airlines’ stock lost 59.3% after it said in a regulatory filing that it’s trying to work out a deal to renegotiate the repayment of its debt that might wipe out the company’s stockholders, but could protect employees and customers.

In the crypto market, bitcoin was tracing at $89,990 after crossing above $93,000 as cryptocurrencies generally soared. Trump has embraced cryptocurrencies, pledging to make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world.

Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that’s been a favorite of Tesla’s Elon Musk, also gave up some of its gain from earlier in the day. Trump named Musk as one of the heads of a “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE for short.

In other dealings early Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil shed 43 cents to $68.00 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up 39 cents to $71.89 per barrel.

The euro fell to $1.0545 from $1.0587.

FILE - A sign marking the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street is shown in New York's Financial District on Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)