Expiration Date for TPS for Nicaragua: 1/5/2019
The Miami Herald Editorial Board agrees with Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27) that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections for Nicaraguans should be kept in place. If deported to Nicaragua, over 5,000 Nicaraguans will face violence and oppression as well as potential separation from their U.S. citizen children here in the U.S.
The Miami Herald piece is excerpted below and available here.
Last November, the Trump administration eliminated the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) granted to Nicaraguans in 1998, when Hurricane Mitch devastated the isthmus.
Nicaraguans living in South Florida and the rest of the United States with that special protection now have until January 2019 to apply for some type of legal residency. If it isn’t granted, they will have to return to Nicaragua.
There are more than 5,000 immigrants who would be going back to a country shaken by violence and facing an uncertain future — with severely diminished economic growth and a government facing strong opposition and numerous accusations of repression.
“If we are going to say that the situation in Nicaragua is terrible, why then are we going to deport so many Nicaraguans when we are saying that the country is in political chaos?” asked Ros-Lehtinen. She’s right.
With almost 300 people killed, Nicaraguans have suffered the worst political crisis since the rebellion that overthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979.
