The Future of Central American TPS Recipients
In recent months, news coverage has focused on DREAMers – undocumented youth who immigrated to the United States as children. However, there is another group of equally deserving long term residents: the 254,550 Central American Temporary Protected Status (TPS) beneficiaries who have held this status for as long as 18 years.
On November 6, 2017, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke announced that Nicaraguans’ TPS designation will end in one year, and that Hondurans with TPS will eligible to apply for a six month extension in order to give the administration more time to study country conditions in Honduras. A decision about the Salvadoran TPS recipients has not yet been announced. As a scholar who has studied immigration from Central America to the United States for over three decades, I have seen how TPS recipients have become integral parts of U.S. communities even as the temporary nature of the program creates uncertainty about their futures.
TPS was created through the 1990 Immigration Act as a humanitarian remedy for foreign nationals in the U.S. whose countries suffer a catastrophe, such as a military conflict or natural disaster. The creation of TPS followed a decade of activism on behalf of Salvadorans and Guatemalans who fled civil wars in their countries of origin but who were overwhelmingly denied asylum in the United States. The 1980-1992 Salvadoran civil war and the 1960-1996 Guatemalan civil wars were fought between leftist guerrilla movements and right-wing governments that were supported by the United States. The Reagan and Bush administrations viewed these conflicts through a cold war lens, arguing that U.S. support was needed to stop the spread of communism in Central America and that Salvadorans and Guatemalans were economic immigrants in search of jobs, not refugees in search of safety.
In response, more than 300 U.S. congregations, concerned about human rights violations in Central America, declared themselves “sanctuaries” for Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees and urged US officials to grant them refuge. Throughout the 1980s, Central American activists and solidarity workers publicized human rights abuses and advocated changes in U.S. foreign and refugee policy. In 1989, after six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter were brutally murdered by Salvadoran soldiers, the political winds shifted, and TPS became part of the 1990 Immigration Act. The Act made Salvadorans who were in the U.S. eligible to apply for 18 months of TPS and created a procedure whereby the administration can designate a country for TPS if circumstances warrant.
A key dilemma for Salvadorans in 1990 was whether to apply for TPS, because after 18 months, their status would expire and the U.S. government could potentially use their information to deport them. Despite this concern, 190,000 Salvadorans applied and in 1992, the Bush administration made them eligible for Deferred Enforced Departure (DED), allowing them to remain in the country with work authorization temporarily.
The question of what status would be awarded to these long term residents, many of whom might have qualified for asylum if procedures had been administered fairly in the first place, lingered until 1997, when the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) allowed Salvadoran TPS recipients and certain other Central Americans to apply for lawful permanent residency.
As of January 2017, more than 300,000 nationals had been granted TPS. The current TPS designated countries are El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. TPS designations have typically been extended repeatedly, allowing beneficiaries to remain in the United States with work authorization until the new expiration date. In 1999, Nicaraguans and Hondurans were made eligible for TPS following the devastation of Hurricane Mitch, and in 2001, Salvadorans were once again granted eligibility for TPS due to earthquakes that struck El Salvador.
During the many years that they have held TPS, these Central Americans have had work authorization and relief from deportation and have paid taxes, but they cannot vote, petition for relatives to enter the United States legally, adjust their status to that of a permanent resident, or travel internationally without permission from the U.S. government. They, therefore, experience a legal limbo: lawfully present but without the benefits that would normally come from legal status.
The Trump administration has announced that Nicaraguans will receive no more extensions after 12 months and that Hondurans will receive a six month extension for now. The fate of Salvadoran TPS recipients is unclear. The 59,000 Haitians who received TPS following the 2010 Haitian earthquake have been granted only six more months, until January 2018, after which time no further extensions will be issued. Sudanese TPS recipients have been given one more year of status without further extensions, whereas South Sudanese TPS holders have been given 18 months due to ongoing military conflict there.
These developments have led to renewed activism on the part of Central American TPS recipients, who have held rallies, lobbied Congress, written letters and postcards, and mobilized their own government leaders. Many cite parallels between DREAMers and TPS recipients. A recent report by sociologist Cecilia Menjívar found that Salvadoran and Honduran TPS recipients have high rates of labor participation with an average monthly income of $2,910. Approximately 30-34% live in owner occupied homes, 49% continued their education after arriving in the United States, 12% launched their own businesses, 90% file tax returns annually, contributing to social security on averabe for 15.4 years.
These levels of deep and long-term integration parallel the sorts of connections developed by those who immigrated to the United States as children. In fact, TPS was used as a model for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which allowed certain young adults who had immigrated to the United States as children to remain in the country temporarily with work authorization. Trump rescinded DACA in September 2017, with a six-month phase out period.
What will the future hold for these long-time residents who have become part of U.S. communities? At a recent gathering in Los Angeles, some 300 Central American TPS recipients sought not merely an extension of their status, but rather the opportunity to become U.S. residents, arguing that their contributions to U.S. society made them deserving of this form of recognition. As one speaker insisted, “You are giving the best of your lives to this country, you deserve the best from this country.” Legislation that would grant residency to Salvadoran, Nicaraguan, Honduran, and Haitian TPS recipients has been proposed, and TPS and DACA recipients have formed alliances. If the activism that led to the passage of NACARA is any indication, their determination will pay off with permanent status, sooner or later.
About the author
Susan Bibler Coutin is Professor of Criminology, Law and Society and Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine and the author of Exiled Home: Salvadoran Transnational Youth in the Aftermath of Violence (Duke Univ. Press, 2016). She is currently a visiting fellow at USC’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration and the Center in Law, Culture and History.