Democratic Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto on Tuesday night urged President Joe Biden to extend deportation protection for illegal immigrants before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in next month.

Trump has made border security one of his biggest priorities during his presidential campaign, and promised to crack down on illegal immigration, including through mass deportations, if he was elected back to the White House. 

Cortez Masto encouraged Biden to extend the protections under the Department of Homeland Security's Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which allows illegal immigrants in the U.S. who are fleeing from dangerous countries to obtain work permits and be shielded from deportation. 

"I remember the calls I would get in my office during the first Trump administration from families that were under threat because of the immigration chaos he created," the senator posted on X. "President Biden has the power to protect immigrant families, and I'm calling on him to use it."

The senator said she also hopes that Biden will process applications for the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program before he leaves office. DACA protects illegal immigrants who came to the country as minors.

"They are part of our communities, and what the president can do is just take legal action to extend their TPS statuses," Cortez Masto said on MSNBC. "But it's not just our TPS recipients. My hope is that the president, in the last two months, also quickly processes our DACA recipients applications. We need to make sure our dreamers also have the ability to stay here, continue to be a part of the country that they grew up in."

Trump attempted to terminate the DACA program during his first term in office, and is expected to either let the protections expire for some nationals, or eliminate the status for many nationalities, according to Fox News. 

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.