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Posted on Thu, Jun. 08, 2006email thisprint this
IMMIGRATION
Immigrants granted one more year in U.S.
BY CASEY WOODS
cwoods@MiamiHerald.com
A last-minute surge in applications for a humanitarian temporary work program means that thousands of Hondurans and Nicaraguans will be protected from deportation for at least another year.

Immigration authorities also have extended the deadline until July 3 for immigrants with extraordinary circumstances.

''When people have an extraordinary situation, such as the death of a loved one, it may have precluded their ability to apply in a timely way,'' said Dan Kane, spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. ``We . . . want to give enough time for eligible beneficiaries to apply.''

Reasons that allow immigrants to extend the deadline to July 3 for the Central American Temporary Protected Status program -- which applies to about 300,000 immigrants nationwide from El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua -- include hospitalization and the birth of a child.

Community leaders had been concerned about low participation by Hondurans and Nicaraguans. But a sudden wave of 20,000 applications by the June 1 deadline raised the participation rate to 85 percent, Kane said.

For Salvadorans, the TPS program does not expire until September and their application deadline has not yet been announced.

For more information about the program, call Honduran Unity at 305-285-1755 or Nicaraguan Fraternity at 305-228-1208.