Thread: Protected status to expire soon for Hondurans, Nicaraguans

http://ocregister.com/ocregister/hom...le_1135057.php

Tuesday, May 9, 2006
Protected status to expire soon for Hondurans, Nicaraguans
Officials fear participants are holding out for immigration reforms instead of renewing their paperwork.

By AMY TAXIN
The Orange County Register

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is concerned that Hondurans and Nicaraguans who have temporary protected status in the United States aren't coming forth to renew their paperwork and instead are holding out for an immigration reform bill that has yet to be passed.

Usually, more than half of the participants in TPS – which allows some citizens of certain countries to live and work here legally while their countries recover from crises – have applied to renew their status less than four weeks before the deadline.

While Hondurans and Nicaraguans must apply by June 1 to renew their status until July 2007, only 17 percent of participants have applied so far, said CIS spokeswoman Marie Sebrechts.

Henry Aguilar, a paralegal at Los Angeles' Central American Resource Center, said he believed some people were holding out with hopes for a more permanent residency after the recent debates surrounding immigration reform.

About 75,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans may be eligible for TPS in the United States, according to CIS. Participants who fail to renew their status in time could lose their benefits, Sebrechts said.

The U.S. government granted these countries TPS in 1998 to help them recover from Hurricane Mitch.

For more information, go to www.uscis.gov/graphics/services/tps_inter.htm.

Prime time to start crackin' down.

Well if they do not want to renew their status they will be free to go back to their countries that they fled from.