The Trump administration will extend Temporary Protected Status for 1,250 Yemeni nationals for another 18 months, the Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday afternoon.
“After carefully reviewing conditions in Yemen with interagency partners, Secretary Nielsen determined that the ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions that support Yemen’s current designation for TPS continue to exist,” the DHS Office of Public Affairs said in a statement. “Therefore, pursuant to the statute, she has extended Yemen’s TPS designation for 18 months.”
Yemenis in the U.S. will be able to remain in the country through March 3, 2020, at which time the DHS secretary will again review the conditions in the Arabian Peninsula nation.
TPS was first granted to Yemenis in September 2015. Recipients receive work authorizations and permission to legally reside in the country.
About 300,000 people have been approved for TPS since Congress created the program in 1990.
Since the fall, DHS has said it will conclude TPS programs for Nepal, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Sudan, Liberia, Haiti, Somalia, and Honduras. Each of those programs were renewed every two years under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
However, Nielsen announced an 18-month extension for the TPS program for Syrians and South Sudan.
