Temporary Protected Status for Haiti Beneficiaries extended

Secretary Napolitano Announces the Extension of Temporary Protected Status for Haiti Beneficiaries

Release Date: May 17, 2011

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010

WASHINGTON — Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today announced the extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti beneficiaries. This extension will be effective July 23, 2011 and is for an additional 18 months. It will allow these TPS beneficiaries to remain in the United States through Jan. 22, 2013. The designation of TPS for eligible Haitian nationals who had continuously resided in the United States since Jan. 12, 2010 was originally announced by Secretary Napolitano on Jan. 15, 2010 and became effective on Jan. 21, 2010. Currently, approximately 48,000 Haitian nationals with TPS reside in the United States.

"In the extended aftermath of the devastating earthquakes in Haiti, the United States has remained fully committed to upholding our responsibility to assist individuals affected by this tragedy by using tools available under the law," said Secretary Napolitano. "Providing a temporary refuge for Haitian nationals who are currently in the United States and whose personal safety would be endangered by returning to Haiti is part of this administration's continuing efforts to support Haiti's recovery."

Secretary Napolitano's action will extend TPS for eligible Haitian beneficiaries for 18 months to allow these TPS beneficiaries to remain in the United States through Jan. 22, 2013.

In addition, Secretary Napolitano is re-designating Haiti for TPS — meaning that eligible Haitian nationals who have continuously resided in the United States since Jan. 12, 2011, will also be able to obtain TPS through Jan. 22, 2013. Under the original designation, TPS applicants needed to show that they had continuously resided in the United States since Jan. 12, 2010, but the re-designation now permits eligible individuals who arrived up to one year after the earthquake in Haiti to receive the protection of TPS. Many of these individuals were authorized to enter the United States immediately after the earthquake on temporary visas, humanitarian parole and through other immigration measures.

This re-designation of TPS applies only to those Haitians who have continuously resided in the United States since Jan. 12, 2011. Haitians who are not currently in the United States will not qualify for TPS under this new TPS announcement and should not attempt to enter the United States illegally to try to take advantage of this benefit. Both the extension and re-designation are effective July 23, 2011. No individual who arrived in the United States after Jan. 12, 2011, will be eligible for TPS.

A person who has been convicted of a felony or two or more misdemeanors in the United States, or is subject to one of the criminal, or security-related bars to admissibility under immigration law, is not eligible for TPS. In addition, an applicant cannot obtain TPS if he or she is subject to one of the mandatory bars to asylum, such as committing a particularly serious crime that makes the person a danger to the U.S. community or persecuting others.

Haitians who attempt to enter the United States now or in the future will not be granted TPS. DHS has been repatriating Haitians seeking to illegally enter the United States since the earthquake in 2010. The U.S. Coast Guard has been intercepting Haitians at sea and returning Haitians who have attempted to enter the United States illegally and who do not meet U.S. protection screening criteria; U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been removing inadmissible Haitians who have arrived at U.S. ports of entry consistent with U.S. policy; and—since January 2011—U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) has removed certain Haitians who have been convicted of certain criminal offenses (or who pose a threat to U.S. national security) and have been issued a final order of removal

ICE is prepared to aggressively investigate and present for prosecution those who seek to defraud the U.S. government in an attempt to gain TPS or engage in immigration benefit fraud as the result of the expansion of this program. ICE will also pursue human smugglers whose only goals are to profit at the expense of others.

In addition to the extension and re-designation of TPS for Haiti, DHS has taken a number of other actions to provide humanitarian assistance to Haitian nationals in the United States. DHS will soon publish a notice in the Federal Register announcing the continued suspension of regulatory requirements related to certain F-1 students who have suffered severe economic hardship as a result of the earthquake in Haiti. Originally announced in September 2010, the continued suspension of these requirements through Jan. 22, 2013, allows eligible F-1 students to obtain employment authorization, to work an increased number of hours during the school term, and if necessary, to reduce their course load while continuing to maintain their F-1 student status. F-1 students granted employment authorization will be deemed to be engaged in a full course of study if they meet the minimum course load requirements.

Haitians in the United States who are eligible to apply for TPS should go to www.uscis.gov/tps or call USCIS toll-free at 1-800-375-5283.

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This page was last reviewed/modified on May 17, 2011.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1305643820292.shtm

IMO, DHS shouldn't have the power to extend the status. Extensions should require an act of Congress! Giving DHS authority to authorize extensions is a conflict of interest because we know the Obama administration does not want to send anyone home. The Secretary of DHS is an Obama appointee and works for him.

Amnesty for All Haitians in U.S., Save those Arriving in Last Four Months


Thursday, 19 May 2011 19:44 David North

Amnesty for all Haitians who arrived legally or illegally in the U.S. by January 12 of this year has been offered by the Department of Homeland Security.

Previously this form of amnesty, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), had been available to Haitians who were here on January 12, 2010, at the time of the earthquake in that country. Now the arrival date has been extended by one year. According to DHS about 48,000 had secured this status during the earlier amnesty, a number smaller than the government had expected.

The announcement came in a press release from DHS and in a teleconference featuring Alejandro Mayorkas, the Director of USCIS, at about the same time.

The press release describes the "you all come" announcement in the most restrictive terms.

Instead of saying all Haitians in the nation, legally and illegally, on Jan. 12 can legalize their status, the release says:


This re-designation of TPS only applies to those Haitians who have continuously resided in the United States since Jan. 12, 2011 . . . Haitians who attempt to enter the United States now or in the future will not be granted TPS . . .

"Only" means the entire illegal alien population from Haiti, except for those who arrived in the last four months. In terms of prior legalization programs, which required years of continuous presence, this is a very sweeping offer. Further, the announcement of the new amnesty did not come until the fourth paragraph of the press release.

This extension of an earlier TPS offer applies to everyone carrying a Haitian passport, whether they arrived as a visitor or in some other nonimmigrant category, or arrived illegally; a student on an F-1 visa, for instance, could apply for the TPS status, and thus acquire the right to stay in the country even after dropping out of school. Those with TPS can apply for an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) that gives them the right to work in the U.S.

Without saying so explicitly, the new offer covers two populations: the newly arrived legal and illegal entrants who got here in the 12 months leading up for January 12, 2011, and all the earlier entrants who had failed to file for the previous amnesty, including many long-term illegals.

The announcement also said that for those who had filed for the previous amnesty, their "temporary" stay had been extended to January 22, 2013. Under this and previous administrations "temporary" legal stays have been postponed time and again. (Once, involving some 37 people from an African nation, a temporary legal status was actually allowed to expire.)

The announcement seemed to be a hurried one, and more details will be released, we were told on the teleconference, in the next few days. The press release, for example, says that new applications will be accepted on and after July 23, but does not appear to discuss the terminal date of the application period.

During the teleconference officials said the deportations to Haiti would continue "but only for people with serious criminal records" and a Coast Guard Admiral read a little speech about his agency's continuing policy to "interdict and rescue and repatriate" illegal aliens caught at sea, usually in unsafe vessels. Someone else made it clear that the policy announced today was separate from something that many in the Haitian community have been seeking – the instant admission of all Haitians with approved immigrant visas (usually in family categories) now waiting for an admission date.

Such a policy would place Haitians ahead of millions of people in similar situations from other nations around the world, and would stir up protests among other migrant populations. That policy would, I am sure, require congressional approval, while the TPS policy is within the current powers of the Secretary of DHS, Janet Napolitano.

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