Thread: DHS ends protected immigration status for Nicaraguans, but Hondurans get extension

DHS ends protected immigration status for Nicaraguans, but Hondurans get extension
Last week Secretary of State Rex Tillerson notified the Department of Homeland Security that conditions in Central America and Haiti no longer required thousands of immigrants to be exempted from deportation. (Hyungwon Kang/Reuters)

By Nick Miroff November 6 at 8:38 PM

[BREAKING: The Trump administration said Monday it needs more time to determine the fate of some 57,000 Hondurans living in the United States with provisional residency status, but it will end the program for a smaller group of immigrants from Nicaragua, giving them 14 months to leave the country.]

An announcement expected Monday from the Department of Homeland Security will determine the fate of some 57,000 Hondurans and 2,500 Nicaraguans who have been living in the United States under a form of provisional residency known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

Another 200,000 Salvadorans and 50,000 Haitians also anxiously await the decision, as DHS must decide in coming weeks what to do with TPS recipients from those countries whose legal residency will expire early next year.

An administration official said Monday an announcement would be “coming shortly,” without giving further details.

TPS recipients and their families are bracing for bad news. Last week Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent a letter to DHS essentially giving the agency a green light to remove the immigrants’ protected status, telling them that conditions in Central America and Haiti no longer required them to be exempted from deportation.

[Tillerson: Protected status no longer needed for Central Americans, Haitians]

If DHS announces an end to TPS for Hondurans and Nicaraguans, the agency is expected to grant those immigrants a grace period of six to 18 months to begin preparing a departure from the United States.

They were shielded from deportation after Hurricane Mitch killed 10,000 across Central America in 1998, so many have been living in the United States for two decades.

Over the weekend lawmakers and immigrant advocate groups urged the acting DHS secretary, Elaine Duke, to renew TPS protections for the Central Americans and Haitians, warning of dire consequences if they are ordered to return to their home countries.

Democratic Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland called the State Department assessment part of a “radical anti-immigrant agenda,” not a clear-eyed analysis of conditions in Central America and Haiti.

“Facts on the ground show that El Salvador and Honduras suffer the world’s highest murder rates, while Haiti is still dealing with recovery efforts from two recent devastating hurricanes,” Cardin said in a statement. “Suggesting that TPS beneficiaries should return home in the face of such risks is not only inhumane, but could destabilize each country.”

Maryland has nearly 20,000 TPS recipients from El Salvador, Cardin said, and they are the parents of 17,000 U.S.-born children.

TPS was created by Congress in 1990 to avoid deporting foreign nationals to countries at moments of instability and danger, because of natural disasters, armed conflict or health epidemics.But Trump administration officials say the “temporary” nature of the program has been long ignored, and TPS was never meant to allow immigrants to remain in the United States indefinitely.

In May, then-DHS Secretary John F. Kelly renewed TPS for Haitians, but only for six months, far short of the 18-month extensions repeatedly granted by the Obama administration.

The Haitians had been allowed to stay in the United States after the 2010 earthquake, which devastated Port-au-Prince, the capital, and killed 200,000.

Kelly, now White House chief of staff, called the six-month extension “limited,” saying its purpose was to “allow Haitian TPS recipients living in the United States time to attain travel documents and make other necessary arrangements for their ultimate departure from the United States.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.003eb47aef06

Protected status no longer justified for Central Americans and Haitians in U.S.

Benj. Cardin needs to get better informed (not that he would really care for the facts.)
https://www.alipac.us/f9/central-ame...d-life-352326/

Send them all home as soon as possible. Come On!

. . . it will end the program for a smaller group of immigrants from Nicaragua, giving them 14 months to leave the country. . .


So in reality they just got a 14 month extension.

DHS to cancel special immigration status for 5,000 Nicaraguans, delays on 86,000 Hondurans

Decisions on Haiti, El Salvador looming could affect more than 300,000 people

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Monday, November 6, 2017

The Trump administration said Monday that it will cancel a special immigration status that has protected thousands of Nicaraguans from deportation for nearly 20 years, but it punted on a decision for tens of thousands of people from Honduras, instead inviting Congress to step in and grant them full status.

The decision had been anxiously awaited by people from both of those countries, many of whom fear having to go back home after living in the U.S. for two decades under what is known as Temporary Protected Status, a humanitarian program that lets people from places that faced natural disasters remain in the U.S. while their home countries recover.

Some 5,000 people from Nicaragua and more than 86,000 Hondurans are still protected under status first granted in 1998, when Hurricane Mitch struck.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke has concluded that Nicaragua has recovered sufficiently from the hurricane for people to have to return home, while Ms. Duke wants more information to evaluate Honduras.

Big decisions on Haiti and El Salvador are looming later this month and early next year, and those could affect more than 300,000 people, but officials said not to read anything into Ms. Duke’s decisions.

“The only indication you should receive is that the administration is examining earnestly and thoughtfully the conditions on the ground,” a senior administration official said in briefing reporters.

In the case of Nicaragua, the Department of Homeland Security said it will grant a one-year grace period for the protected immigrants to get their affairs in order, but they will have to either depart or find some other legal status in the U.S. by Jan. 5, 2019.

For Honduras, Ms. Duke’s inability to make a decision automatically kicks in a six-month extension, which protects citizens until July 5, 2018.

The senior administration official briefing reporters said the Trump administration wants Congress to consider a more permanent solution that would allow those protected to remain in the U.S.

“The administration would support Congress‘ efforts to find such a solution,” the official said.

The law governing Temporary Protected Status is designed to give countries a chance to recover from disasters or other mass tragedies such as wars. It protects those who were in the U.S. as illegal immigrants, here on legal student visas or other temporary permits, letting them stay so their return doesn’t overwhelm their homelands.

TPS status was used to help West African nations deal with Ebola, while the Haiti and El Salvador declarations stem from devastating earthquakes — Haiti’s in 2010, and El Salvador’s dating back to 2001.

Some 263,000 people from El Salvador are protected by TPS, as are about 59,000 Haitians. Those countries are the two biggest designations.

Under previous administrations, TPS designations were regularly extended as a near-automatic decision. The Trump administration has taken a different approach, pointing out that the law allows TPS to exist only as long as the conditions caused by the original tragedy persist.

In the case of Haiti, Trump administration officials say, once the country recovers from the earthquake, people must go back — regardless of the fact that the country is struggling from non-hurricane issues.

Immigrant rights activists insist the countries remain stricken and say those who have been in the U.S. that long have put down roots that must be honored.

“Deporting TPS holders means deporting the parents of American citizens, separating families, and sending people to danger,” said the Rev. John L. McCullough, president of Church World Service, a leading refugee advocacy group.

Government officials in Honduras, El Salvador and Haiti have begged for the U.S. to renew TPS status and let their people stay, saying they have become a part of American society.

But the foreign countries’ motives in wanting their people to remain abroad are also a matter of dollars and cents.

Nearly 18 percent of Honduras‘ economy consists of remittances — money sent back home to the country by Hondurans living elsewhere. Remittances to El Salvador constitute 17 percent of its economy, while in Haiti, it’s nearly 30 percent.

Nicaragua’s remittance rate is less than 10 percent. It was the only country of the for big ones with looming decisions whose government didn’t ask for renewed TPS.

All told, more than 435,000 people are in the U.S. under TPS. They are granted work permits, meaning they compete for jobs and are entitled to some taxpayer benefits.

When combined with illegal immigrant “Dreamers” protected by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals deportation amnesty, they represent well more than 1 million illegal immigrants who are authorized to be part of the U.S. workforce.

Congress is working on a solution for permanent status for Dreamers, and the Trump administration, in its announcement Monday, said TPS-protected migrants should also be part of a conversation.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...ans-cancelled/

Disgusting. Get them all out of here as soon as possible. I don't care how long they've been here. Get them all out of here and put an end to this stupid program. All these different articles all have different numbers, different stories. Can't wait until Trump gets back home. When the cat's away, the mice will play.

"PUNT" THEM BACK OVER THE BORDER!

DEPORT THEM ALL...WE VOTED FOR TRUMP...WE WANT THEM GONE!

DO NOT SEPERATE THE FAMILY...SEND THEM ALL PACKING!

WE DO NOT GIVE A HOOT WHAT YOU PEOPLE IN D.C. WANT...END THESE FAILED PROGRAMS NOW OR YOU WILL BE VOTED OUT!

"In the case of Nicaragua, the Department of Homeland Security said it will grant a one-year grace period for the protected immigrants to get their affairs in order, but they will have to either depart or find some other legal status in the U.S. by Jan. 5, 2019."
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The Nicaraguans with temporary protected status can't be deported until Jan. 5, 2019

Give them 90 DAYS to sell out, pack up and go home.

Load up trains through Mexico to their Southern Border and they can get on a bus from there.

NO ONE-YEAR DEAL TO STAY!