Kaine, Cardin Criticize Decision to Prevent Syrians Fleeing Violence from Applying for Protected Status in U.S. 2/3/2018 1:02:58 AM U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Ben Cardin WASHINGTON, February 01, 2018  – U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the Committee’s ranking member, released the following statement after the Trump Administration announced it would extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Syrians currently in the U.S., but failed to renew the TPS designation for Syrians fleeing violence and seeking to apply to come to the United States. Last week, Kaine and Cardin led nine of their colleagues in sending a letter to Secretaries Nielsen and Tillerson urging the Administration to both extend and re-designate TPS for Syria: “While we welcome the extension of TPS, we are disappointed by the Administration’s failure to renew ‎the TPS designation for Syrians.  This decisi...