The Trump administration will extend Temporary Protected Status for 500 Somali nationals for another 18 months, making it the fourth out of 12 countries to benefit from an extension, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“After carefully reviewing conditions in Somalia with interagency partners, Secretary [Kirstjen] Nielsen determined the ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions that support Somalia’s current designation for TPS continue to exist,” the DHS Office of Public Affairs said in a statement released Thursday evening. “Therefore, pursuant to the statute, she has extended Somalia’s TPS designation for 18 months.”
Somalia nationals in the U.S. can stay in the country through March 17, 2020, when the DHS secretary will again review the conditions in the East Africa nation.
TPS was first granted to Somali in September 1991. It was previously re-designated in 2001 and 2012. TPS is given to people already in the U.S., whether legally or illegally, and allows them to work here and avoid deportation because their home country is not in a position to take back its own people.
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, South Sudan, and Yemen.
