Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) says President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s decision to give Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to thousands of Lebanese nationals living in the United States will “undoubtedly” shield Hezbollah terrorists from deportation.
As Breitbart News reported, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced TPS for about 11,000 Lebanese nationals living in the United States who would otherwise face deportation. Those with TPS will be able to hold American jobs through January 2026.
In response, Cotton wrote a letter to Mayorkas warning that the Biden-Harris administration’s decision to give TPS to Lebanese nationals comes at “a grave risk to our national security.”
“We have seen a dramatic increase in unvetted illegal immigrants as a result of your open-border policies. Under the Biden-Harris administration, Border Patrol has encountered thousands of illegal immigrants from countries with deep ties to terrorism, including Lebanon,” Cotton wrote:
In fact, Border Patrol agents apprehended a Lebanese man at the southern border earlier this year who said he belonged to Hezbollah and came to America to build a bomb. [Emphasis added]
Your department estimates that granting TPS status will protect 11,000 Lebanese nationals from deportation, which undoubtedly includes many Hezbollah terrorists. This reckless policy endangers the safety of our citizens. [Emphasis added]
Cotton told Mayorkas he ought to “rescind this decision before it goes into effect.”
“For Lebanese nationals who have a legal basis to be present in the United States and who can credibly claim a risk to their lives if they return to Lebanon, your department could evaluate asylum requests on a case-by-case basis,” Cotton wrote. “This policy would be a far more sensible and safer course of action than a blanket TPS grant to all Lebanese nationals.”
TPS was first created under the Immigration Act of 1990 and prevents federal immigration officials from deporting people from countries designated as experiencing famine, war, or natural disasters.
Since the Clinton administration, TPS has been transformed into a de facto amnesty program, as the Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and now Biden-Harris administrations have continuously renewed the program for a variety of countries.
Today, nearly 900,000 foreign nationals in the U.S. are shielded from deportation after securing TPS. Most are from Venezuela, Haiti, El Salvador, Honduras, and Ukraine.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
