Is Protected Status gone for good?
Temporary Protected Status – Now will be gone for good?
by Jose Enrique Perez
Last month, a federal appeals court decided that President Donald Trump can eliminate the protections for thousands of families that have been living and working legally in the U.S., many of them for decades with Temporary Protected Status (also known as TPS).
People with temporary protected status are generally in the country when disaster or political upheaval strikes in their home countries, such as the catastrophic earthquake that wiped out large parts of Haiti in 2010 or Hurricane Mitch, which hit Central America as the second-deadliest Atlantic hurricane in 1998.
The Trump administration has argued that most countries in the program have recovered from the related disasters or conflicts and that the status has been renewed for years beyond its need. Clearly, this is another lie of the Trump’s Administration.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a block on Trump’s ending of TPS, for close to half million people. The administration could expel people from Sudan, Nicaragua and Haiti as soon as March of 2021 and from El Salvador by November 2021.
Immigrants from El Salvador make up the largest group of TPS recipients, an estimated 263,000, but a bilateral agreement will allow Salvadorans an extra year to stay in the U.S. if the courts ultimately uphold Trump’s termination of the program.
The appeals court ruling means that those immigrants will be required to find other ways to remain in the U.S. legally or depart after a wind-down period of at least six months, longer in the case of El Salvador. However, the case is likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court, which could delay the outcome.
The law requires that the status of the TPS recipients must be renewed periodically by immigration, which can extend it for six- to 18-month intervals. People with TPS do not have pathways to legal residency, a precursor of citizenship, without leaving the country.
You should remember that this article is not intended to provide you with legal advice; it is intended only to provide guidance about immigration policies. Furthermore, the article is not intended to explain or identify all potential issues that may arise in connection with representation in an immigration case. Each case is fact-specific and therefore similar cases may have different outcomes.
I represent individuals in immigration. If you have any questions or concerns about an immigration case or potential case, you can call me at (315) 422-5673, send me a fax at (315) 466-5673, or e-mail me at joseperez@joseperezyourlawyer.com. The Law Office of Jose Perez has now moved and is located at 659 West Onondaga Street, Upper Level, Syracuse, New York 13204. Now with offices in Buffalo and Rochester!!! Please look for my next article in the November edition and stay safe, healthy and away from the Coronavirus. In addition to our current practice of Personal Injuries, Work Accidents, Social Security and Immigration, we now also practice Criminal, Traffic, Family, DWI and Divorce. REMEMBER TO VOTE AND VOTE HIM OUT AS HE SHOULD NOT HAVE A SECOND TERM!
