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Institute for Workplace Studies-----------------Professor Samuel B. Bacharach

School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies

Cornell University

16 East 34th Street, 4th floor--------------------Stuart Basefsky

New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau

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Congressional Research Service (CRS)

 

Temporary Protected Status: Current Immigration Policy and Issues

Lisa Seghetti, Section Research Manager

Karma Ester, Information Research Specialist

Ruth Ellen Wasem, Specialist in Immigration Policy

January 12, 2015

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RS20844.pdf

[full-text, 11 pages]

 

Summary

When civil unrest, violence, or natural disasters erupt in spots around the world, concerns arise

over the safety of foreign nationals from these troubled places who are in the United States.

Provisions exist in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to offer temporary protected status

(TPS) or relief from removal under specified circumstances. A foreign national who is granted

TPS receives a registration document and an employment authorization for the duration of TPS.

 

The United States currently provides TPS to over 300,000 foreign nationals from a total of 11

countries: El Salvador, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, Liberia, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, Somalia,

Sudan, South Sudan and Syria. Liberians have had relief from removal for the longest period, first

receiving TPS in March 1991 following the outbreak of civil war and ultimately obtaining DED

on September 30, 2011. In December 2013, the government of the Philippines formally requested

that the United States grant TPS to Filipinos in the United States who are affected by Typhoon

Yolanda (Haiyan). Legislation that would have granted TPS to Filipinos was introduced in the

113th Congress; however, no action was taken on it.

 

Under the INA, the executive branch grants TPS or relief from removal. The Secretary of

Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, has the discretion to issue TPS for

periods of 6 to 18 months and can extend these periods if conditions do not change in the

designated country. Congress, however, has also provided TPS legislatively.

 

Contents

Background ...................................................................................................................................... 1

Humanitarian Migrants .................................................................................................................... 1

Temporary Protected Status ............................................................................................................. 2

Nationalities Receiving Temporary Protections .............................................................................. 3

Leading Concerns ............................................................................................................................ 4

Guinea and Sierra Leone ........................................................................................................... 4

Philippines ................................................................................................................................. 4

Syria ........................................................................................................................................... 5

Haiti ........................................................................................................................................... 5

Liberia ....................................................................................................................................... 6

Central America ......................................................................................................................... 7

Legislation ....................................................................................................................................... 7

 

Tables

Table 1. Countries Whose Nationals in the United States Currently Benefit from Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure.......... 3

 

Contacts

Author Contact Information............................................................................................................. 8

 

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