Temporary Protected Status for four countries extended to January 2020

As of this month, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for recipients from four countries—Nicaragua, Haiti, El Salvador, and Sudan—has been extended through January 2, 2020. USCIS officially published this automatic extension in the Federal Register Notice on March 1, and thousands of people who have been in legal limbo can breathe a sigh of relief.

One of the Trump administration’s lesser known battles in its war on immigrants has been its attempts to terminate TPS for hundreds of thousands of immigrants. TPS is a status granted to certain groups of immigrants who must leave extraordinarily dangerous political or natural disaster conditions. They have lived in the United States for decades, establishing lives, careers, and families that in many cases include U.S. citizens. The Trump administration has hoped to eliminate status for as many of these immigrants as possible, in particular recipients from several Latin American and African countries.

Overseeing a lawsuit challenging the Department of Homeland Security on this matter, a federal judge ordered a preliminary injunction in October of 2018 requiring DHS to halt plans to terminate TPS for these four countries. DHS must comply, and registering the extensions is the first step. As long as the injunction remains in place, DHS must extend TPS again as the next deadline approaches.

For more information, please see: https://cliniclegal.org/tps/Ramos2