300,000 migrants could face deportation
State Department: Haitians, Central Americans no longer need protected status
WASHINGTON — More than 300,000 Central Americans and Haitians living in the United States under a form of temporary permission no longer need to be shielded from deportation, the State Department told Homeland Security officials this week, a few days ahead of a highly anticipated federal announcement about whether to renew that protection.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent a letter to acting Home-
land Security Secretary Elaine Duke to inform her that conditions in Central America and Haiti that had been used to justify the protection no longer necessitate a reprieve for the migrants, some of whom have been allowed to live and work in the United States for 20 years under a program known as Temporary Protected Status.
Tillerson’s assessment, required by law, has not been made public, but its recommendations were confirmed by several administration officials familiar with its contents. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Homeland Security has until Monday to announce its plans for roughly 57,000 Hondurans and 2,500 Nicaraguans whose Temporary Protected Status protections will expire in early January. Although most arrived here illegally, they were exempted from deportation after Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America in 1998. Their Temporary Protected Status protections have been renewed routinely since then, in some cases following additional natural disasters and resulting insecurity.
Congress established Temporary Protected Status in 1990 to protect foreign nationals from being returned to their countries amid instability and precarious conditions caused by natural disasters or armed conflict.
Trump administration officials have repeatedly noted that the program was meant to be temporary — not a way for people to become long-term residents of the United States. Officials said that long-ago disasters should not be used to extend provisional immigration status when the initial justification for it no longer exists.
Tillerson’s assessment is consistent with broader administration efforts to reduce immigration to the United States and comply with legal restrictions that it maintains have been loosely enforced in the past.
“It is fair to say that this administration is interpreting the law, exactly as it is, which the previous one did not,” an administration official said.
The official acknowledged that the countries in question continue to suffer from problems of poverty, corruption and violence that, in many cases, have spurred illegal migration.
But, the official said, those conditions should be addressed in other ways.
“The solution is going to require working with Congress and these countries,” the official said. “We are equally committed to finding that. There is no lack of empathy here.”
But “with this particular law,” the official said, “it is very clear to this administration what needs to be done.”
Administration officials have also said that the return of tens of thousands of migrants could benefit the Central American nations and Haiti, because their citizens will return with job skills, democratic values and personal savings acquired from living long-term in the United States.
Many of the immigrants have homes, businesses and U.S.-born children, but if the protections expire, they could be subject to arrest and deportation. “We understand this is a very difficult decision,” the administration official said.
Homeland Security officials declined to say Friday what the agency planned to do, or when an announcement would be made.
“The acting secretary has made no decision on [Temporary Protected Status],” said Tyler Houlton, a spokesman for the agency.
Tillerson’s letter does not amount to a recommendation. But Homeland Security is required to seek the agency’s input, and officials said the State Department’s position carries significant weight.
The largest group of Temporary Protected Status recipients — about 200,000 — are from El Salvador, and Homeland Security has until early January to announce its plans for them. At least 30,000 of them live in the Washington area, according to immigrant advocacy groups.
When the Obama administration last extended Temporary Protected Status for the Salvadorans, in July 2016, it said that they were eligible because conditions justifying it continued to be met.
“There continues to be a substantial, but temporary, disruption of living conditions in El Salvador resulting from a series of earthquakes in 2001,” Homeland Security officials said at the time, “and El Salvador remains unable, temporarily, to handle adequately the return of its nationals.”