U.S. Immigration News: Department of Homeland Security Cancels Nicaraguans' TPS Effective January 2019
The U.S. government has announced that it is terminating a program that protects the illegal Nicaraguan migrants from deportation.
While Nicaraguan migrants in the U.S. are presently protected by the Temporary Protected Status (TPS), Nicaraguans will soon need to find another way to make their stay in America legal as the Trump administration has announced the suspension of the program effective January 5, 2019.
The TPS was designated for Nicaragua in 1999 following the devastation the country and the rest of Central America experienced due to Hurricane Mitch. Under the program, Nicaraguans are allowed to work in the United States, and many have even raised families on American soil since then.
While Both former U.S. presidents George W. Bush and Barrack Obama argued that those countries granted the TPS could not cope with the return of thousands of their nationals and extended the program's duration, some could not help but criticize it as they pointed out that it was abused. For the critics, the TPS has become a permanent fixture that allowed some immigrants to stay by allowing them to renew their visa repeatedly.
Finally, the fear of the Nicaraguans under the protection of the TPS program became a reality as the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security announced on Monday, Nov. 6, that the "substantial but temporary conditions caused in Nicaragua by Hurricane Mitch no longer exist," which means it is high time for the TPS designation for the country to be cancelled. This puts the fate of the 2,500 Nicaraguans under the said program in jeopardy.
It is not only Nicaraguans under the TPS who are at the threat of being deported, though, as the Department of Homeland Security has yet to decide on the fate of El Salvadorans and Haitians who are also under the protection of the same program.
Various immigration groups and advocates have appealed to Duke not to end TPS, pointing out to her the consequences that these immigrants may experience when they return to their respective countries.
