The Trump Administration has decided to end Temporary Protected Status (“TPS”) for Haitians who were in the U.S. and could not return to the Haiti as a result of the devastations left by a 2010 earthquake and subsequently by a 2015 hurricane. Haitians that were in the U.S. under this Temporary Protection Program will be expected to leave by July 2019 or face deportation proceedings.
Currently, there are approximately 320,000 people benefiting from this program. Salvadorans and Haitian comprised the two largest groups of individuals under TPS with 200,000 and 60,000 respectively. TPS was signed into law in 1990 by then President George H. W. Bush. It is designed to allow individuals from countries that are undergoing civil strife or recovering from a natural disaster that prevents them from returning, to remain in the United States while the situation back home returns to normal. These individuals are also eligible to receive work authorization while in the United States. The U.S. government does routinely review each group’s status in order to decide whether or not to continue the protection.
The U.S. government has also recently announced that it would be making another assessment in order to decide whether or not to extend TPS to citizens of El Salvador. This decision is expected to be announced sometime in January 2018.
To learn more about asylum law and immigration law, contact our asylum lawyers and immigration lawyers today.
