Calls for Temporary Protected Status for Central American Countries Continue to Grow American Immigration Council
go to original September 12, 2016

Calls for the U.S. Government to designate El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras for temporary protected status (TPS) have continued to grow louder as over 100 law professors and nearly 400 civil, faith, immigrant, labor rights, and legal services organizations urged the President to use TPS to protect Central Americans. TPS would provide nationals of these countries who are already in the United States with a temporary stay of removal and employment authorization to support themselves and their families while their country is too dangerous to return to safely. Although Honduras and El Salvador currently have TPS designations due to natural disasters in 1998 and 2001 no one who has come to the United States since those years can benefit from TPS.

Endemic levels of violence have continued to pervade the Northern Triangle region of Central America, which includes these countries. Since 2014, El Salvador’s murder rate has increased 70 percent, making the small country the murder capital of the Western hemisphere, while Honduras and Guatemala are ranked third and fifth, respectively. This trend continued during the first quarter of 2016 with El Salvador averaging “nearly one homicide per hour.” In January 2016 U.S. Peace Corps volunteers withdrew from El Salvador for the first time in 40 years, which followed the September 2012 withdrawal of volunteers from Honduras. Those fleeing violence face tremendous obstacles along the way, including trafficking, rape, and a fierce enforcement crackdown in Mexico, which only increases the risks they face in seeking protection.

The dire situation facing nationals from the Northern Triangle has concerned members of Congress with 22 Senate Democrats and 146 House Democrats sending repeated letters to the President calling for TPS for Central Americans this year. Hundreds of faith-based organizations and leaders have also echoed this call to protect these Central Americans from dangerous deportations.

Read the rest at American Immigration Council

Related: Thousands of Central American Children Seek to Enter U.S., U.N. Says (Associated Press)

Related: Bucking National Trend, Washington State Sees Increase in Mexican Immigrants (The Seattle Times)

Photo: Carecen DC

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