As temporary protected status settlement talks stall, more than 250,000 risk deportation
Nearly 300,000 immigrants in the United States face imminent deportation, but immigration authorities have offered them no solution, leaving them uncertain whether they will survive the end of the process by which they can remain in the country, according to a new report.
The Trump administration has threatened to let people, mostly from Mexico, leave the country en masse this year if an agreement on border security and asylum benefits is not reached before the end of March — which many say is increasingly unlikely.
A bipartisan report issued Tuesday by advocacy groups said that at least 250,000 people in the U.S. have been in a “remain in Mexico” status for more than two months, but have not yet been offered a way to remain in the country.
To make sure those with a pending deportation order do not try to sneak back into the country or seek a stay of deportation during the extension of their TPS, the report urges the administration to take steps to avoid deportation of people they have allowed to remain in the country under TPS.
“There are a handful of people who are at the end of their TPS terms who are not being offered a plan that would allow them to stay here so they can apply for temporary legal status,” said the report by the Center for Immigration Studies, the American Immigration Council, NumbersUSA and the American Civil Liberties Union.
“While other cases are less complex, there is no doubt that some people are being put at risk.”
The report found that since October 2018, more than 1,100 immigrants received final orders of removal and the remaining 2,800 were detained.
While the number of people being detained has declined, the number of those who have had their TPS orders renewed has more than doubled, from 7,600 in October to 18,600 over the past 17 months. If all the people under the President Donald Trump administration’s TPS program had remained in the country after their orders were renewed, the U.S. would have spent $50
