Hondurans lose protected status
Administration ends law established in 1990
Tens of thousands of Hondurans who have lived in the United States for up to two decades must prepare to leave, government officials announced Friday, a decision that effectively spells the demise of a humanitarian program that has protected nearly half a million people who had sought refuge from unstable homelands.
The Trump administration is ending temporary protected status for Hondurans who have been allowed to live and work in the United States since 1999, after a hurricane ravaged their country. With an estimated 86,000 people registered, Hondurans represent the second-largest group of foreigners who have benefited from the program.
Determined to rein in both legal and illegal immigration, the Trump administration since last year has scrapped protections for more than 300,000 citizens from countries, mainly in the Caribbean and in Central America, that have suffered natural disasters.
On Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said she had determined that conditions have improved sufficiently in Honduras to warrant suspension of protected status for its citizens in the United States, according to a department statement.
Hondurans in the program have until January 2020 to get their affairs in order and depart.
“I did everything right: I worked hard, started a company, had two children and made investments here,” said Samuel Contreras, a licensed contractor on Long Island who arrived in 1998, shortly after Hurricane Mitch struck Honduras. “The bank approved a $300,000 mortgage because I have good credit and income. Now I don’t know what will happen.”
Two weeks ago, the administration announced 9,000 Nepalis with similar protection must leave. In January, it canceled protection for 200,000 Salvadorans, notifying them to depart by September 2019. Last year, it decided that 45,000 Haitians must leave by July 2019 and 2,500 Nicaraguans must go by January.
Signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, the temporary protected status program once enabled some 435,000 people from 10 countries crippled by natural disasters, war and other adversities to live in the United States.
Immigrant advocates and the Honduran government had asked the United States to extend the program, as has happened several times since 1999.
This week, more than 600 faith leaders signed a letter asking the administration for an 18-month extension, calling a termination “unconscionable.”
“This can’t be,” said Cristiane Rosales-Fajardo, founder of NOLA Village, an advocacy group in New Orleans, where Hondurans outnumber other Hispanics. “They rebuilt our houses and the city after Hurricane Katrina. When nobody wanted to come, they were here bringing New Orleans back to life.”