BOISE — Forty-four nationwide immigrant advocacy groups are calling on Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to hold investigative hearings on the Trump administration’s actions to end Temporary Protected Status for people from Central American and Caribbean countries.

The call to action, reported Wednesday by The Hill, follows a November report from committee ranking member Sen. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey, that alleges the administration timed the request to end TPS for hundreds of thousands of people from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua, around the 2020 election process, rather than based on conditions in those countries.

TPS is a policy that allows people from countries facing turmoil — such as an armed conflict or natural disaster — to temporarily live and work in the United States, after passing a background check, until their home country’s conditions improve.

In 2017, Trump administration officials determined that El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua no longer met the conditions required for TPS, the Hill reports.

The end of the program in those countries has been held up in court, and the Department of Homeland Security said this month it would extend TPS through Jan. 4, 2021, for most TPS recipients, according to the Pew Research Center, which reports that roughly 317,000 people from 10 countries currently have this protected status.

The Menendez report alleges the Trump administration’s 2017 move to end TPS benefits was for political gains and against the advise of State Department officials who were on the ground in El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua.

“This outrageous abuse of power not only directly contradicts the recommendations of officials who urged then-Secretary Rex Tillerson to strongly endorse a 36-month wind-down period, but may be a violation of the law,” the groups’ letter said. “By statute, the TPS redesignation process must be devoid of political or electoral considerations.”

The letter calls for Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigation into the findings from Menendez’s report and for Congress to pass permanent protections for TPS holders.

The letter is signed by 44 organizations, including PODER Latinx, which has a chapter in Idaho.

Sen. Risch’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the letter.