What is TPS?
What is TPS?
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) allows nationals of designated countries to stay in the United States for humanitarian reasons (typically after a natural disaster or ongoing armed conflict) as their country rebuilds.
TPS recipients are authorized to stay in the United States for a specific period of time. However, this is not a pathway to citizenship. After receiving TPS protection, recipients must renew their status every 6, 12, or 18 months (at the discretion of the Dept. of Homeland Security) as well as pay a $500 renewal application fee.
Currently, the countries designated for TPS are: El Salvador (since 2001), Haiti (since 2010), Honduras (since 1998), Nepal (since 2015), Nicaragua (since 1998), Somalia (since 2012), Sudan (since 2013), South Sudan (since 2016), Syria (since 2012), and Yemen (since 2015).
As you can tell from the years that TPS was designated for various countries, many recipients have lived full lives here while also starting their own families. Their deportation would leave more than 279,000 U.S-born children with an uncertain future.
Why is TPS in danger?
Since assuming his presidency, President Trump has displayed overt opposition to the humanitarian intent of the TPS program—routinely trying to end current TPS designations--and refusing to designate TPS to newly vulnerable countries. Since 2018, he has terminated TPS programs for six out of 10 countries, or 98% of immigrants with TPS. For many TPS holders, deportation is a death sentence due to the conditions that created the need for TPS in the first place.
More recently, after Hurricane Dorian devastated the Bahamas in September 2019, the administration refused to designate TPS for the Bahamas and forced hundreds of Bahamians off ships headed for the United States. And yet, Hurricane Dorian was a Category 5 hurricane and rendered more than 70,000 people homeless. It was the strongest hurricane to hit the Bahamas in the country’s history, on par with the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane as the strongest landfalling hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean. Historically, administrations on both sides of the aisle have granted TPS to countries that suffered from hurricanes—Honduras and Nicaragua (both of which also suffered a Category 5 hurricane)—earthquakes—El Salvador, Haiti, and Nepal—and other emergency conditions from 1990 to 2015. The administration’s explanations of criminality and disease reveal the racism and xenophobia marking this country’s historically inconsistent response to Hurricane Dorian.
What are we doing to defend TPS?
Successful lawsuits from TPS holders (Ramos v. Nielsen, and Bhattari v. Nielsen) blocked the Department of Homeland Security from terminating TPS for the six countries: Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nepal. They argued that the government did not follow the Administrative Procedure Act and acted out of racism. However, this is only a temporary extension of TPS, because the block was enacted via a “preliminary injunction”: a court order made in the early stages of a lawsuit that preserves the status quo until the final ruling.
In the meantime, advocates are pushing S. 879 “Safe Environment from Countries Under Repression and Emergency Act” to use their power to find a solution for all TPS holders, whether they are covered by the injunction or not.
When will the final ruling happen?
The Secretary of Homeland Security appealed this preliminary injunction that blocks the administration’s termination of TPS. On August 14, 2019, the Court (United States District Court Ninth District of California) heard the administration’s challenge. Immigration advocates rallied across the nation and at the U.S. Court of Appeals during the hearing.
If the court reverses the preliminary injunction, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will inform TPS recipients from these countries when the 120-day or 180-day “transition period” to leave the United States will begin.
The Court’s decision regarding the government’s appeal of the preliminary injunction is expected any day now. This is why we are marching to defend DACA and TPS—because #HomeIsHere and we are #HereToStay!