About 5,300 Nicaraguans will lose their protected immigration status and will be forced to leave the U.S. by January 2019, as the Department of Homeland Security announced on Monday. It extended the humanitarian status for Hondurans, allowing around 86,000 of them to work in the U.S.
The temporary protected status is granted to citizens of countries struggling with natural disasters or armed conflicts and is usually provided for a period of 18 months, though in the past two decades some immigrants, especially those who come from Central America, have had their TPS renewed repeatedly.
However, the Trump administration has suggested it will scrutinize requests for TPS renewals, as opposed to rubber-stamping them as it has done so far.
Both Nicaragua and Honduras were granted their protected visa status in 1999, shortly after Central America was devastated by Hurricane Mitch. A senior administration official said that faced with the Monday evening deadline, acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke refused to make a decision on Hondurans, resulting in an automatic six-month renewal of their status.
Duke said she needed more time to assess conditions in Honduras based on which she would make a decision. The official added that after this period expires, Duke may decide to end the protective status for Honduras as well. The DHS concluded that conditions in Nicaragua have improved to an extent that they are now better than before Hurricane Mitch. According to the department, no formal extension was requested by the Nicaraguan government.
DHS statistics show that at the end of last year, over 400,000 immigrants were granted the status. TPS covers 10 countries, two of which – Nicaragua and Sudan – no longer have the protected status. The administration is to make a decision on Haiti by November 23, and on El Salvador by January.
Maria Elena Durazo, Unite Here’s vice president for immigration, condemned the decision to terminate TPS for Nicaraguans.
“Donald Trump has taken hundreds of thousands of dedicated employees who serve our country and turned them into targets for deportation overnight.”
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