http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ne ... 944019.htm

Posted on Thu, Feb. 23, 2006

Salvadoran president in Miami thanks Bush for continuing temporary worker program

BY AL CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com

The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday officially extended for a year a controversial temporary worker program for 304,000 Central American illegal immigrants living in the United States.

Salvadoran President Elias Antonio Saca, meanwhile, teamed up with Miami's three Cuban-American representatives in Miami to profusely thank President Bush for ordering the continuation of TPS.

The official announcement was made by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Homeland Security agency that administers the program known as Temporary Protected Status. TPS is granted to nationals of countries in crisis so they can remain lawfully in the United States even if their visas have expired or do not have immigration status.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, one of Miami's three Cuban-American Republican representatives, broke the news Wednesday that TPS for Central Americans was going to continue. The Miami Herald reported last month that Homeland Security officials were debating ending TPS for Central Americans.

That spread alarm in the community, triggering intense lobbying of the White House by Miami's Cuban-American representatives and Central American community leaders.

''Under this extension nationals of El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua who have already been granted and remain eligible for TPS will be able to continue living and working in the United States for an additional 12 months,'' the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services statement said Thursday. It added that the extension covers about 225,000 Salvadorans, 75,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans. Extensions will expire Sept. 9, 2007, for Salvadorans and July 5, 2007, for Hondurans and Nicaraguans.

At a news conference at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Saca said that when he meets with Bush in Washington Friday he will also urge him to push for immigration reform.

Besides thanking Bush, Ros-Lehtinen and Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and his brother Mario Diaz-Balart gave Saca credit for helping to keep the program alive through his own lobbying on the issue.

''He is the hero of the moment,'' said Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

Critics of the TPS program believe it has become an entitlement for certain illegal migrants -- while proponents argue it represents income and stability for poor Central American countries.

Three TPS-holders, two from Honduras and one from El Salvador, were on hand at the Biltmore to express appreciation.

''I thank President Bush for not taking away TPS,'' said Yesi González, 23, of Honduras who grew up in Miami under TPS. She arrived illegally with her family years ago when she was seven and now works at Padrón Cigars, taking orders.

González went to Coral Way Elementary, Shenandoah Middle and graduated from Miami Senior High.

''I'm very happy because I was very worried that I would have to leave my job, and maybe the country,'' she said.

Another TPS-holder at the event, Maria Clementina Arce, 50, of El Salvador, also a Padron Cigars employee, said she wanted to thank Saca for his role.

''I am now calm, after learning that TPS will continue,'' she said. ``I know my children will continue to be able to go to school.''

She said that when she resettled in Miami 12 years ago she left behind in El Salvador four children to whom she continues to send money regularly.

''For a mother the sacrifice of having to leave her children behind so they can grow up to be someone in life is truly painful,'' she said. ``But there was no other way.''

Tonight Sen. John McCain will be the keynote speaker at a town hall meeting in Miami. The Arizona Republican is behind a key immigration bill in Congress that seeks to legalize up to 11 million illegal immigrants in the country.

The meeting will be at Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus, 300 NE Second Ave., Chapman Center, Building 2, at 6 p.m. It is partly organized by the grass-roots Mi Familia Vota en Acción (My Family Votes in Action). It is one of several similar town hall meetings McCain is holding in major U.S. cities to push for his bill, also sponsored by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.