Tens of thousands of Haitian refugees who have been granted temporary permission to live in the U.S. following devastating natural disasters in Haiti may face deportation if the Trump administration declines to extend their status. “The TPS program gives temporary immigration status to foreign nationals living in the United States who cannot go back home because of war, natural disasters, or other extraordinary circumstances that make it too dangerous or difficult to return,” notes Think Progress. The Obama administration had renewed this status three times, but James McCament, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, has “recommended against doing so,” arguing “that conditions have improved enough for Haitians to return:”
The facts on the ground say otherwise, however. Haiti has only made some recovery efforts since the 2010 earthquake which killed 9,200 people. But hundreds of thousands of people there are still homeless after the disaster leveled buildings and displaced 1.5 million people. In 2016, Hurricane Matthew again rocked the country — damaging infrastructure, claiming more than 1,000 lives, and leading to a clean-up effort that introduced cholera, which then killed more than 9,000 people.
The Congressional Black Caucus has urged U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to extend TPS for current Haitians, pointing to the continued lack of food security after Hurricane Matthew uprooted trees, eroded topsoil, and destroyed necessary agricultural equipment and seeds in the country’s richest agricultural regions.
“The bottom line is that conditions in Haiti have not improved to an extent that would remotely justify the end of TPS,” said Benjamin Johnson, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “The elimination of TPS for Haiti will not only create immense hardships for close to 47,000 Haitian individuals who have lived in the United States under the protection of this program for more than 7 years, it will also impact their children, many of whom are U.S. citizens, and their families back home, who rely on remittances for their basic needs.”
from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2qGDs96
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