{"id":23857,"date":"2020-11-12T15:32:06","date_gmt":"2020-11-12T20:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=23857"},"modified":"2020-11-13T08:51:59","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T13:51:59","slug":"guatemala-tps-request-from-us-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/11\/12\/guatemala-tps-request-from-us-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Gimme Shelter: Guatemala Seeks Temporary Protected Status"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In the wake of a hurricane that killed an estimated 50-150 people, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/storm-eta-guatemala-migration\/united-states-asked-to-allow-guatemalans-to-stay-on-humanitarian-grounds-after-storm-idUSL1N2HY018\" target=\"_blank\">Guatemala<\/a> is asking the U.S. to provide <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscis.gov\/humanitarian\/temporary-protected-status\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Temporary Protected Status<\/a> (TPS) to its countrymen living here illegally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If approved, tens of thousands of Guatemalans illegally in the U.S. could be eligible to stay at least temporarily, joining some <a href=\"https:\/\/fas.org\/sgp\/crs\/homesec\/RS20844.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">411,000 foreign nationals<\/a> currently in the TPS program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Guatemala City\u2019s request raises a couple of questions: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Even at the high end of 150 fatalities, does the death toll from Hurricane Eta warrant legal refuge for Guatemalans illegally present in the U.S.? (Some <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/2331502420906125\" target=\"_blank\">574,000<\/a> were estimated here in 2018, Latin America\u2019s third largest contingent behind Mexico and El Salvador.)<\/li><li>Just how temporary is Temporary Protected Status?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nGuatemala storm pales in comparison to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which\nkilled some 250,000 people and activated TPS protections for Haitians here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More\nproblematic is the not-so-temporary nature of TPS. A decade after that\ndevastating quake, Haitians who had been living in this country <em>still <\/em>enjoy protected immigration\nstatus. They are not alone. Other long-term designees include El\nSalvador, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria and\nYemen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Trump administration has been trying to end TPS since 2017. And, finally, in September, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/latino\/court-rules-trump-can-end-temporary-protected-status-immigrant-families-n1240072\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">9th Circuit Court of Appeals<\/a> affirmed that the U.S. could phase out the program. Under that ruling, TPS for long-term beneficiaries from Sudan, Nicaragua and Haiti could be terminated next March, and Salvadorans by November 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meantime, President-elect <a href=\"https:\/\/joebiden.com\/immigration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Joe Biden<\/a> is pledging \u201can immediate review\u201d of TPS, and calls Trump\u2019s efforts to cancel the program \u201cpolitically motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whatever the politics, TPS is a poor Band-Aid at best. As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2017\/05\/17\/why-we-must-think-beyond-tps-for-haiti-and-other-failed-states\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">FAIR<\/a> noted three years ago, \u201cEven though TPS is, in theory, applicable only to people who were in the United States at the time of the triggering event, a common thread that runs through all countries receiving this designation is that they are places people desperately want to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While America should always be humanitarian in\nresponding to natural disasters or man-made crises, TPS implies that\nthis country is equipped to fix the problems that drive migration around the\nworld. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe goal must be to find the best ways (best, as in least bad) to address the problems at their core and protect people, without encouraging mass and unsustainable transfers of population,\u201d FAIR concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the wake of a hurricane that killed an estimated 50-150 people, Guatemala is asking the U.S. to provide Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to its countrymen living here illegally. If approved, tens of thousands of Guatemalans illegally in the U.S. could be eligible to stay at least temporarily, joining some 411,000 foreign nationals currently in<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/11\/12\/guatemala-tps-request-from-us-immigrationreform-com\/\" title=\"Read More\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":14514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[511],"tags":[1524,860,71,763],"yst_prominent_words":[3706,1961,3213,5940,10354,2511,2443,3581,2488,1994,1944,3007,3002,2981,10355,3004,3003,2999,3000,1939],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23857"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23860,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23857\/revisions\/23860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23857"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}