300,000 Legal Immigrants Fear End of TPS

{2:24 minutes to read} Over 300,000 individuals from Haiti and Central America, living legally in the U.S. under TPS, are fearful of losing their status under the Trump Administration. U.S. immigration law provides for a special program called Temporary Protected Status also known as TPS. This program allows the DHS Secretary to provide temporary legal status and work authorization to citizens of a country, or countries, suffering through the devastation caused by a political or natural disaster. Currently, people from Haiti, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua are benefiting from this program. These are people who were in the U.S. when these disasters occurred.

Some of these designations extend almost 20 years—Honduras first received TPS in 1999 due to Hurricane Mitch. The law requires DHS to review the TPS designation every 18 months and to announce its decision to extend or not, 60 days before the current expiration date.

TPS is set to expire in January 2018 for Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and in March 2018 for El Salvador. The TPS beneficiaries living in the U.S. are frightened that this administration, which has shown little humanitarian support for immigrants, may refuse any further extensions. Obviously, many of these people, living legally in this country for so many years, raising families, starting businesses, buying homes and paying taxes, are rightfully concerned.
 
Apply for permanent residency now!

I urge people who are from these countries and have TPS to begin the process of trying to get permanent residency as soon as possible. The federal courts have indicated that someone who is here with TPS can adjust status and get a green card without leaving the United States.
 
People who have certain family relatives and/or employer sponsors should begin the process of trying to get green cards through these sponsors immediately before the administration pulls the rug out from under them by denying the extension of TPS. 

Mitchell C. Zwaik

Zwaik, Gilbert & Associates, P.C.
5014 Express Drive South
Ronkonkoma, NY  11779
www.zwaik.com