A federal program that protects more than 325,000 illegal immigrants from deportation remains intact despite President Trump’s call for it to end.
Trump entered office in January 2017 criticizing his predecessors for renewing national memberships every 18 months in the Department of Homeland Security’s Temporary Protected Status program, which allows illegal immigrants from specific countries to remain in the country and work because the home country is unstable as a result of political or environmental problems. Trump said crises in those countries that began 20 and 30 years ago could not still affect the ability to repatriate its citizens.
However, a Washington Examiner analysis of the status of the 10 countries that were enrolled in the program four years ago shows that they remain in the program. Although the administration tried to rescind some, it was blocked in court from doing so. In other cases, it continued the years-old programs because conditions in those countries had not dramatically improved.
Congress created TPS in 1990 as a way to help countries that had been seriously harmed by armed conflict, famine, or natural disaster from having to repatriate citizens deported from the United States. Countries could request TPS status from the U.S. government at any time, and if approved, their citizens in the U.S. could apply for 18-month reprieves from deportation and permits to work. As of 2019, Pew Research Center data revealed more than 50,000 TPS recipients worked in construction, followed by 32,000 in food services, and 15,000 in landscaping. When Trump took office, more than half of TPS recipients were from El Salvador. Fifty-seven thousand were from Honduras and 46,000 from Haiti.
Former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen extended protections set to expire in 2019 and 2020, another 18 months for Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen — each into 2021 or 2022. Far fewer immigrants protected through TPS were from these four countries than the other six. However, the extensions did not allow new applicants to apply for protection.
The administration said it would drop the six other countries. Starting in late 2017 and into early 2018, the DHS announced plans to wind down TPS for El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Sudan. Citizens from these six countries account for 98% of TPS recipients.
El Salvador was first given TPS in 2001 following two earthquakes in 2001; Haiti in 2010; Honduras following a hurricane in 1998; Nepal following an earthquake in 2015; and Nicaragua in 1998.
Immigrant advocacy groups sued the administration several times on the grounds that people have lived in the U.S. long term and consider it home and should not be forced to leave. The American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a Haitian newspaper, Casa de Maryland, and others launched five lawsuits.
The basis of the lawsuits varied from allegations it was discrimination against people from specific countries and over the way the administration was attempting to walk back the program. As a result of the lawsuits, DHS said on Wednesday that citizens from El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Sudan will retain their TPS status into October 2021 due to a preliminary injunction in the Ramos v. Nielsen case. Nine TPS recipients and five U.S. citizen children of TPS holders filed a class-action lawsuit against DHS in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California over its attempts to end protections for people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan.
Haiti’s status remains in effect into 2021 due to a preliminary injunction in the Ramos and Saget v. Trump case, in which 10 Haitian TPS recipients, the Haiti Liberte newspaper, and the Family Action Network Movement sued Trump and DHS officials in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York.
Honduras and Nepal were also continued while the Bhattarai v. Nielsen case continues. Six TPS holders and two U.S. citizen children of TPS recipients sued in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California.
The courts have tied up countless immigration actions over the past four years, including border wall construction funding, the travel bans, public charge rule, and other issues. The incoming Biden-Harris administration has promised to review TPS immediately, including the six countries, and endorsed legislation that offers a path to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of TPS recipients.
