The Biden White House attempted to thwart the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign before it even commenced, a newly-released bombshell memo shows.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) released the presidential memorandum, dated January 2, 2024, that senior advisors within the Biden administration produced for then-President Joe Biden advising him “to expand TPS [Temporary Protected Status] before YOU leave office.”
“The memo, which appears to be misdated, is from Biden’s ‘Senior Advisors’ in the waning days of his lame duck presidency. It was the pitch to expand TPS ‘before YOU leave office.’ His team was searching for ways to lock in his mass-migration regime before Trump took power,” Schmitt wrote in an X post Thursday.
“TPS gives foreign nationals work permits and protection from deportation. A ‘redesignation’ expands that shield to newly arrived migrants. Biden’s team was considering making millions more eligible—then leaving President Trump to process the claims,” the senator said.
“His team was searching for ways to lock in his mass-migration regime before Trump took power,” he added.
BREAKING: I am releasing a newly obtained internal Presidential memorandum from the Biden White House.
It details how Biden was advised to block President Trump’s deportation of 3.1 MILLION noncitizens—including Tren de Aragua members—through “Temporary” Protected Status. pic.twitter.com/oIquq3pRm7
— Senator Eric Schmitt (@SenEricSchmitt) July 23, 2026
The Biden administration advisors pointed to the then-president’s expansion of temporary protected status to shield from deportation foreign nationals from seven different countries: Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Burma, Lebanon, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Haiti, according to the memo.
By the time Biden was preparing to leave office, the administration was overseeing the protected status of roughly 1.2 million people from 16 different countries, the memo stated. The advisors raised concerns about the expiration of TPS for those individuals come “2025 or early 2026” and recommended that two new countries, Ecuador and Guatemala, be added.
The addition of Ecuador and Guatemala would mean more than two million migrants would be shielded from deportation, according to the memo.
“Stakeholders argue that granting TPS will potentially protect many vulnerable people from President-elect Trump’s planned mass deportations, including some who live in ‘mixed status’ families with U.S. citizens. They argue that those protections are likely to hold in court, and they are prepared to litigate efforts to terminate or slow down the implementation of TPS for specified nations by the Trump Administration,” the memo read.
“While it is impossible to predict with certainty the likelihood of success of any future litigation, prior Federal litigation brought by advocates during the first Trump Administration was successful in halting the Trump Administration’s efforts to terminate TPS, though that was due in large part to the prior Administration’s failure to produce a factual record in support of termination, which is something that could be rectified,” it added.
The memo also pointed to growing criticism of Biden’s expansion of TPS by Republicans arguing the program has become “a form of amnesty” that encourages more illegal immigration.
“Should the Secretary of Homeland Security redesignate Venezuelan nationals for TPS, Republicans are likely to argue that YOU provided amnesty to Tren de Aragua gang members,” the memo noted.
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