TPS in Central America

If you look around Central America today, Guatemala is probably the country most in need of relief through Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The US Secretary of Homeland Security has the authority to grant TPS to individuals from countries that are experiencing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other conditions. These people are then allowed to work and reside in the US until the secretary determines that conditions are acceptable for their return.

Guatemalans are suffering from the damaging effects of recent natural disasters including tropical storms, volcanic eruptions, flooding, and earthquakes. Their government originally requested TPS benefits in June 2010. However, the Obama administration has given no indication that it is interested in moving forward in providing relief to Guatemalans living in the US. Even though the administration has announced that it will take some steps to ease up on deportations of people living in the country so long as they are no risk to society, the use of TPS to protect thousands of Guatemalans here does not appear to be on the agenda.

However, Guatemala has not given up on asking. After last week's earthquakes and flooding, Guatemalan Foreign Secretary Erick Maldonado stated that he plans to send another request to the US government for TPS protection.

It's tough to see Obama moving on this request given that he won't want to look soft on illegal immigration heading into the 2012 election. I don't think that that's the right way to look at it, but I imagine that's some of the politics behind the lack of a decision. Fewer people are coming across the US' southern border. More people are being deported than under previous administrations. A relatively large number appear to be  leaving voluntarily. Finally, we also know that the border counties and states are by and large pretty safe. Obama should know by now that he is not going to get credit for any improved border security or reduction in the number of immigrants living in the country illegally. Extending TPS to Guatemalans is unlikely to affect anyone's perceptions of Obama's immigration policies even if they were paying attention. He might as well stop pretending that this is somehow going to change.

Meanwhile in El Salvador, Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez said that his government will request that the US extend TPS to over 218,000 Salvadorans living in the US. Thousands of Nicaraguans and Hondurans also are living in the US under TPS and presumably their governments will be looking for an extension as well.

If today you had to choose a Central American country most in need of TPS, it would be Guatemala. It has recently suffered the most in terms of natural disasters. Flooding has also taken lives in El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, but just not to the extent that it has in Guatemala. However, it's much easier for the US government to simply maintain the status quo with regard to TPS benefits- no TPS for Guatemalans and TPS for Salvadorans, Hondurans, and Nicaraguans - than it is to make a change.

It doesn't matter that TPS was extended to Salvadorans over one decade ago (2001) following a series of devastating earthquakes or that Hondurans and Nicaraguans were given TPS two years earlier (1999) following October 1998's Hurricane Mitch. It's a lot easier to just extend TPS to the nationals of those countries that it is to grant it for the first time to the people of Guatemala even though they might actually be in greater need of that protection today.

At the same time, it's not clear that the US will be ending TPS to Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, and Hondurans anytime soon. Given that many of these individuals have been in the country for a decade or more now, it doesn't make sense to make them go "home." The administration should start thinking about how to transition these people to some form of permanent legal status.