Trump will deport 70,000 Nicaraguans and 4,000 Hondurans

The Trump administration is rescinding the Temporary Protected Status of about 70,000 Nicaraguans and 4,000 Hondurans.

The Department of Homeland Security published notices of the terminations in the Federal Register July 8. The move follows similar actions this year against TPS and humanitarian parole recipients from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Cuba, Haiti, Nepal and Venezuela.

The effort is part of President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant campaign with mass detentions and deportations, termination of temporary protections and an ongoing attempt to end birthright citizenship.

Many Nicaraguan and Honduran TPS recipients have been in the U.S. since the program was created in 1999 with its provisions for work authorization, tax-paying responsibilities and driving privileges. But the administration said citizens from both nations have been granted far too many extensions and must leave the country by Sept. 8 or face deportation.

“Temporary Protected Status, as the name itself makes clear, is an inherently temporary status,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem declared in the termination notices for both Nicaraguan and Honduran temporary status programs. “A 60-day orderly period of transition is consistent with the precedent of previous TPS country terminations and makes clear that the United States is committed to clarity and consistency.”

Some of those previous terminations have been met with lawsuits, resulting in delays imposed by federal judges. But the U.S. Supreme Court has sided with the administration in two cases.

The justices on May 30 paused a lower-court order blocking the termination of the CHNV parole program for hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. Earlier that month, the court allowed the administration to end temporary status for Venezuelans who had sued to stop the termination.

“The Trump administration has gone to war against TPS itself,” said Emi MacLean, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California and co-counsel in a lawsuit to prevent the deportation of Honduran, Nicaraguan and Nepalese immigrants from that state.

“Secretary Noem, through her actions, is seeking to dismantle the statute that has provided humanitarian relief for hundreds of thousands of people who cannot safely return to their home countries,” MacLean said.

The termination of temporary protections places immigrants in an agonizing dilemma, said Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy.

“This administration is forcing TPS holders — and their U.S. citizen children — to make an impossible choice. They cannot safely go back to their country of nationality, leaving their families and communities, and yet they will be stripped of the right to live and work in the U.S.”

Immigrant advocates said the administration’s actions will return immigrants to nations to face the violence and severe economic hardships that led to the creation of TPS and parole in the first place.

“In the case of Nicaragua, rampant political and ideological persecution remains a major driving factor for people seeking refuge in the United States. Many continue to fear return to such repressive conditions,” said Anna Gallagher, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network. “In Honduras, widespread gang violence and economic depression threaten many people.”

Negative effects from the terminations will be felt in the U.S. as well, said Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice: “The Trump administration’s revocation of TPS for Honduras and Nicaragua will harm our economy and destabilize American communities and families.”

The consequences for children and families will be equally severe, said Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense.

“Broadly eliminating TPS protections for thousands of individuals whose safety depends on this longstanding federal program risks separating caregivers from children, rendering these kids unaccompanied or separated from their families again, during a time when their access to support and fundamental legal protections is under attack,” she said.

And then there are the humanitarian harms of the administration’s actions to consider, said Guerline Jozef, executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance.

“The decision to end TPS for Hondurans and Nicaraguans is a cruel betrayal of our shared humanity. It is state-sanctioned violence disguised as policy, forcing thousands back into danger after decades of building lives, contributing to our economy and raising families in the U.S.,” she said.

The Trump administration can expect more lawsuits challenging its immigration policies, said Jose Palma, coordinator of the National TPS Alliance.

The National TPS Alliance and its 320,000 members will continue fighting to protect TPS through legal channels, while also pushing forward the fight for permanent residency. We know that an attack on one TPS-designated country is an attack on all of us,” Palma said.

 

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