US halts deportation of Lebanese citizens due to conflict in south Lebanon

The White House has announced that U.S. officials will halt the deportation of Lebanese citizens who have run afoul of immigration laws because of the ongoing conflict on Lebanon’s border with Israel.

President Joe Biden said in a statement that “humanitarian conditions in southern Lebanon have significantly deteriorated” and “many civilians remain in danger” due to the ongoing low-level fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah.

The two sides have engaged in near-daily clashes since October, which have killed around 500 people on the Lebanese side, most of them fighters with Hezbollah and allied groups, but also including some 90 civilians.

The White House statement said Biden had “determined that it is in the foreign policy interest of the United States to defer for 18 months the removal of any Lebanese national” with some exceptions, including anyone convicted of a felony or who the Secretary of Homeland Security determined “presents a danger to public safety.” The Lebanese citizens would be authorized to work during that period.

U.S. diplomats have been attempting to broker an end to the hostilities on the Lebanon-Israel border amid fears that the conflict might blow up into a full-on war that could become a regional conflagration. Hezbollah has said it will halt its fire only when there is a cease-fire in Gaza, while Israeli officials have threatened an invasion or expanded military operation in Lebanon in an attempt to drive the militant group back from the border.