For years, many people living in the Kentucky area and throughout the United States who were born in Haiti, the Central American countries Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua, as well as people born in other countries including Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen and Syria have been able to reside in the U.S. per a special status called the Temporary Protection Status. However, the U.S. Department of State announced that this special status is no longer necessary, meaning some of these individuals might now face deportation and removal.
The Temporary Protection Status was established in 1990. It protected foreign nationals from deportation back to their countries of birth if those countries lacked stability due to armed conflict or a natural disaster. Over 300,000 people residing in the U.S. benefited from this status.
However, the Secretary of State has announced that the conditions in those countries are now stable enough that a Temporary Protection Status is no longer needed. This could be very serious for the approximately 57,000 people from Honduras and the 2,500 people from Nicaragua who will lose their protected status in January.
Time will tell how the loss of this status will affect the many people living in the United States who were previously protected from deportation to their nation of birth. Some of these people may have been legally living in the U.S. for years or even decades. Deportation and removal in such situations could be extremely devastating. Therefore, those who are wondering how the loss of this special status might affect them may want to seek legal advice, so they can better understand their situation.
Source: Reuters, “U.S. State Department says certain immigrants no longer need protected status: Washington Post,” Nov. 3, 2017
