By Theodore Parisienne Posted – 7:09PM
In a Media Release from the U.S Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen today announced that she was ending the Temporary Protected Status for the Country of Honduras. Honduras was bestowed with the TPS designation in 1999 after the devastation wrought upon them by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
The Media Release indicated that conditions in Honduras since the Hurricane have ‘Notably Improved’, and further stated that the Country has made ‘Substantial progress in post hurricane recovery and reconstruction’ since conditions were last reviewed in October of 2016. The effective date of the termination of the TPS, which Secretary Nielsen states is required under the Immigration and Nationality Act, will be January 5, 2020.
This eighteen month delay is designed to allow for an ‘orderly transition’, providing Hondurans residing in the United States and currently benefitting from the TPS time to arrange for their departure back to Honduras, or to ‘seek an alternative lawful immigration status in the United States, if eligible’. According to the Release, this delay will also allow the Government of Honduras to ‘prepare for the return and reintegration of its’ citizens’.
Honduran citizens with current TPS registrations will be required to re-apply for both the TPS and Employment Authorization Documents in order to continue to live and work in the United States until January 5, 2020. Information relevant to the TPS re-registration period will be posted in a Federal Register Notice, and affected individuals are being asked not to submit re-registration applications until the Notice appears in the Federal Register.
