Federal Agency Moves to Shield Thousands of Lebanese Nationals From Deportation

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington on Aug. 12, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The United States announced on Thursday that it is granting temporary protections to Lebanese nationals who are currently in the country amid the Israeli incursion in Lebanon to root out Hezbollah.

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that Lebanese citizens can stay in the United States for 18 months with work permits due to the “ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in Lebanon.”

The DHS protections cover about 11,000 Lebanese citizens living in the country.

Temporary protected status-approved individuals “will be able to remain in the country while the United States is in discussions to achieve a diplomatic resolution for lasting stability and security across the Israel–Lebanon border,” the DHS said. Lebanese citizens who enter the United States after Oct. 16 won’t be eligible, the agency said.

Israel launched a series of attacks in Lebanon over the summer targeting the Hezbollah terrorist organization, killing its top commanders, including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.

In June, three senators asked the Biden administration to give Lebanese nationals temporary protected status and made a similar request on Tuesday, making note of the recent Israeli military incursion in the country.

“In the months since our request, the armed conflict between Hezbollah and Israel has only intensified, claiming the lives of civilians, and worsening the already dire humanitarian emergency,” Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and Dick Durbin((D-Ill.) wrote. “Lebanese as well as international agencies, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) report the displacement of more than one million people, internally.”

The DHS announcement was welcomed by the American–Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, which said that it’s important for Lebanese citizens to be able to stay out of a conflict. However, it called on the Biden administration to stop providing Israel with weapons.

“It is not lost on us that these nationals are in this position to begin with because of U.S. foreign policy,” the group’s executive director, Abed Ayoub, said in a statement.

Temporary protected status is an immigration measure that can be provided to citizens of certain countries that could be deemed unsafe for nationals to be deported there.

Notably, there has been intense focus on the Biden administration’s decision to grant Haitian citizens temporary protected status earlier this year amid claims from Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and other Republicans that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets, ducks, and geese. Local officials in Springfield and Ohio have denied the allegations.

Israel’s military said on Tuesday it was targeting a Hezbollah commander in multiple airstrikes on the southern town of Qana, where 15 people were killed. Israel said the target was Jalal Mustafa Hariri, a Hezbollah commander in charge of the Qana area.

Israel also resumed its strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs after a six-day pause, hitting what it said was an arms warehouse under an apartment building. The military warned residents to evacuate before the strike, and there were no reports of casualties.

Earlier this year, Hezbollah was accused of firing a rocket at a soccer field in Israeli’s Golan Heights, killing about a dozen children. Over the past several weeks, Israel has launched airstrikes on a regular basis, while Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets into Israeli territory.

Israel, meanwhile, has persisted in its conflict against Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group based in Gaza, since the group launched a terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that left 1,200 Israeli civilians dead. Officials on Thursday claimed that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October attack, was killed by Israeli troops.

The United States and Israel have said that Iran has long backed both Hamas and Hezbollah. Currently, the U.S. Department of State is urging Americans to leave Lebanon, which is classified as “Level 4 - Do Not Travel.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.