The Department of Homeland Security has made no indication of how it plans to respond to a late June request from Guatemala, formally asking the U.S. for Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, following a volcano that struck the Central American country on June 3.
Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales announced on June 25 Foreign Minister Sandra Jovel had requested TPS from the U.S. government.
“The main reason given is that, derived from the recent situation in Guatemala, as a result of the eruption of the volcano of fire and the consequences that this caused to the country, it can be considered a support for the Guatemalan migrants, since at this moment the country is unable to handle the return of its citizens properly, and its eventual return would aggravate the situation that Guatemala faces,” the Guatemalan government wrote in a letter to DHS, the federal department that handles TPS requests.
The program, created by Congress in 1990, allows a country that has been seriously affected by an armed conflict or natural disaster to ask that any people residing in the U.S. — regardless of immigration status — have removal orders rescinded because the home country is not in a position to accept them back. Those individuals are also given work documents to legally work in the U.S.
Most TPS recipient countries have a few hundred to tens of thousands of citizens who have been given protection from deportation. They are renewed by the DHS secretary every 18 months for six- to 18-month terms.
But in Guatemala’s case, that number could be astronomically higher due to the high number of nationals in America — a factor DHS may take into consideration before coming to a decision.
At last count in 2014, a DHS report found an estimated 640,000 Guatemalan nationals were illegally residing in the U.S. It’s not likely that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency tasked with approving individuals’ applications for TPS, would approve all requests.
Guatemalan officials reported more than 110 deaths, 57 injuries, and 200 missing people following the June 3 eruption of Volcan de Fuego in the southern part of the country.
The National Coordination for Disaster Reduction of Guatemala estimated more than 3,100 people were evacuated and a total of 1.7 million people impacted by the volcanic eruption.
Guatemala could face an uphill battle. Although President Trump has not shared plans to deport the millions of illegal immigrants residing in the country, his administration has opted to end TPS programs for the majority of countries who had been been granted this protected status.
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 has given extensions to migrants from Syria, South Sudan, and Yemen.
The Guatemalan government previously applied for TPS in 2005, 2008, 2010, and 2013, but all of the requests were denied.
Vice President Mike Pence and DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen visited Morales in his home country last week, just days after the TPS request was made.
DHS and USCIS did not respond to requests for comments on Friday regarding the department’s consideration for TPS for Guatemala.
