Thread: Haitian Immigrants Receiving Temporary Protected Status

Haitian Immigrants Receiving Temporary Protected Status
By Dan Moffett
About.com Guide
August 15, 2011

In a way they seldom think about, Americans are helping Haiti recover from last year's devastating earthquake.

They're doing it with immigration policy.

Every day, Haitian immigrants working in the United States are sending money from their paychecks back to families in Haiti. Remittances from Haitians living abroad are the largest part of the hemisphere's poorest economy, accounting for about $1 billion to $1.5 billion annually, according to the World Bank.

About 70 percent of that comes from people of Haitian descent in the United States, a population estimated at close to 2 million. Tens of thousands of those immigrants wouldn't be here working, if not for the U.S. government's action after the earthquake.

Last year, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that the government would grant Temporary Protected Status to Haitian nationals living in the U.S. The designation allows immigrants to stay here and work without penalty for a specified period because their homeland is too damaged or disrupted to handle their return.

Haitian immigrants with expired visas or those with no visas would have been forced to return without the TPS designation. Now, they work, send money home and contribute to their nation's recovery because of Americans' compassionate immigration policy.

The government's current 18-month extension of TPS for Haitians is in effect through Jan. 22, 2013. Eligible immigrants must register with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to receive it.

http://immigration.about.com/b/2011/08/ ... status.htm

There is nothing more permanent than TPS - is it just another form of AMNESTY.