Political Quotes

“as you know, Congress has granted the Secretary of Homeland Security the authority to grant temporary refuge to aliens, usually illegal immigrants, from particular countries under temporary protected status. Congress intended this provision to live up to its name and be temporary. Unfortunately, a pattern of abuse has emerged in the temporary protected status, or TPS, program. DHS can grant TPS status to the nationals of a country for as long as 18 months and can later extend the TPS period indefinitely by adding extensions up to 18 months each. The administration has begun to utilize TPS as a de facto amnesty for illegal immigrants from certain Central American countries. TPS status was granted to Honduran and Nicaraguan nationals at the end of 1998 following Hurricane Mitch. The administration has extended TPS for these individuals multiple times, the latest extension lasting until January 2009, more than 10 years after the hurricane. TPS status for Salvadoran nationals was granted early in 2001 as a result of earthquakes hitting the region. The latest TPS extension for Salvadoran nationals lasts until September 2007, again, long after temporary dislocations caused by the earthquakes. There are currently some 248,000 Salvadorans, 81,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans, mostly aliens who came illegally to the United States, benefiting from TPS status.”