The Trump administration is moving to finally end temporary deportation protections for thousands of foreign nationals.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Honduras and Nicaragua, according to two notices posted Monday by the Trump administration. The announcements mark the latest round of deportation protections President Donald Trump has attempted to scrub since returning to the White House in January.
“After reviewing country conditions and consulting with appropriate U.S. Government agencies, the [DHS] Secretary has determined that conditions in Honduras no longer support its designation for TPS,” the administration said, which issued similar language in a separate announcement regarding TPS for Nicaragua.
“The Secretary, therefore, is terminating the TPS designation of Honduras as required by statute,” the administration continued.
TPS is a federal authority, first established in 1990, that bestows sweeping deportation protections and work eligibility to certain foreign nationals living in the U.S., including illegal migrants, whose home countries are experiencing any number of conflicts or devastating natural disasters, making it potentially unsafe for them to go back, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It is not a grant of permanent legal status.
Despite the temporary nature of the program, thousands of migrants under TPS have been able to keep living and working in the U.S. for decades because the government repeatedly extends their designations — as has been the case for Honduras and Nicaragua.
Both Central American countries were initially designated for TPS roughly 25 years ago on the basis of an environmental disaster that resulted in “substantial, but temporary” disruption of living conditions, according to the administration’s notices. Since that time, however, Honduras and Nicaragua have seen their TPS designations “continuously extended” over the years, with Nicaragua’s designation being extended a total of 13 consecutive times.
