More than a quarter century after Hurricane Mitch devastated parts of Central America, the Trump administration is moving to boot out 55,000 migrants who have been living in the U.S. under special deportation protections since then.
The migrants are from Nicaragua and Honduras, which were slammed by the hurricane in November 1998. In 1999, the Clinton administration said migrants from those nations who were in the U.S. at that time would be granted Temporary Protected Status.
Over the ensuing years, it had been renewed by the Bush, Obama and Biden administrations and court orders, but Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday she was bringing it to an end.
She said both nations have recovered enough to no longer need the status.
“Temporary Protected Status was designed to be just that — temporary,” she said.
Some 52,600 Hondurans and 3,000 Nicaraguans were living under TPS as of December, according to the Congressional Research Service.
They were among 1.1 million people from 17 nations living in the U.S. under TPS. The vast majority of those migrants were granted protections by the Biden administration, which set records for using TPS to protect illegal immigrants in the U.S.
Under TPS, migrants are protected from deportation, given work permits to compete for jobs and qualify for a Social Security number and some taxpayer benefits.
The status is supposed to last 18 months but can be renewed.
The theory behind TPS is that it gives nations struck by war, natural disasters, political upheaval or health crises a chance to recover without having to worry about people being sent back — and gives the migrants themselves a reprieve from returning to rough conditions.
In practice, it has become a secondary immigration system, with Hondurans and Nicaraguans having spent nearly three decades in the U.S. under the protections.
The Trump administration also has announced the end of TPS for Afghanistan, Venezuela, Cameroon, Nepal and Haiti, totaling roughly 600,000 people in the U.S.
Immigrant-rights groups denounced Ms. Noem’s move, saying the Nicaraguans and Hondurans in question had long ago put down roots and become part of American communities.
“Now, with no clear path forward, immigrant families are being ordered to live in the shadows, uproot their lives after decades in America, or be deported to countries that remain unsafe,” said Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition.
The National TPS Alliance announced a speedy legal challenge.
The Trump moves to shut down TPS for Venezuela and Haiti were also challenged and blocked by lower courts, though the Supreme Court in May lifted the judge’s Venezuela blockade, allowing Ms. Noem to end protections for about 350,000 people.
Foreign nations, and Central American governments in particular, like TPS because of the money their citizens working in the U.S. send home.
The latest data shows that 26% of Honduras’ gross domestic product comes from remittances, most of that from the U.S.
Nicaragua brought in about 23% of its GDP in remittances last year, up from 11% just six years previously.
