Posted on Tue, Jan. 24, 2006
IMMIGRATION
Cuban-American leaders press Bush on 'safe haven'
Cuban-American lawmakers asked the Bush administration to provide Haitians and Central Americans fleeing dangerous regimes 'safe haven' in the United States.
BY THERESA BRADLEY
tbradley@MiamiHerald.com
South Florida's three Cuban-American members of Congress pressed the Bush administration Monday to allow foreign nationals from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Haiti to remain in the United States for ''safe haven'' while their countries rebuild.
Republican U.S. Reps. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, Mario Díaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen called on the administration to renew ''temporary protected status,'' known as TPS, currently granted to Hondurans, Nicaraguans and Salvadorans. More than 300,000 are at risk of losing TPS and being deported.
In a separate letter, the lawmakers asked President Bush to make Haitian nationals eligible for TPS for the first time, too. They cited the two ''undemocratic actions'' of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide for creating conditions that make it ''extremely dangerous for Haitians to return to their country at this time.'' Haiti is gearing up for elections in February.
TPS, a temporary work-residency program, created by Congress as part of the 1990 immigration reform law, today grants citizens of seven designated countries, plagued by armed conflict or natural disasters, the right to live and work in the United States for certain periods of time.
That status, reviewed every 18 months, has most often been extended, based on persisting instabilitycountries.
The Bush administration has reportedly been considering dropping TPS and perhaps rolling it into a guest-worker initiative now being considered by Congress as part of a comprehensive overhaul of immigration law.
TPS beneficiaries send millions of dollars back home, pumping life into their countries' economies. Honduran immigrants sent $1.5 billion to relatives in 2004 -- the second-largest source of income for that country, according to the Consul General in Miami.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13695884.htm
Cuban-American leaders press Bush on 'safe haven'
Cuban-American lawmakers asked the Bush administration to provide Haitians and Central Americans fleeing dangerous regimes 'safe haven' in the United States.
BY THERESA BRADLEY
tbradley@MiamiHerald.com
South Florida's three Cuban-American members of Congress pressed the Bush administration Monday to allow foreign nationals from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Haiti to remain in the United States for ''safe haven'' while their countries rebuild.
Republican U.S. Reps. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, Mario Díaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen called on the administration to renew ''temporary protected status,'' known as TPS, currently granted to Hondurans, Nicaraguans and Salvadorans. More than 300,000 are at risk of losing TPS and being deported.
In a separate letter, the lawmakers asked President Bush to make Haitian nationals eligible for TPS for the first time, too. They cited the two ''undemocratic actions'' of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide for creating conditions that make it ''extremely dangerous for Haitians to return to their country at this time.'' Haiti is gearing up for elections in February.
TPS, a temporary work-residency program, created by Congress as part of the 1990 immigration reform law, today grants citizens of seven designated countries, plagued by armed conflict or natural disasters, the right to live and work in the United States for certain periods of time.
That status, reviewed every 18 months, has most often been extended, based on persisting instabilitycountries.
The Bush administration has reportedly been considering dropping TPS and perhaps rolling it into a guest-worker initiative now being considered by Congress as part of a comprehensive overhaul of immigration law.
TPS beneficiaries send millions of dollars back home, pumping life into their countries' economies. Honduran immigrants sent $1.5 billion to relatives in 2004 -- the second-largest source of income for that country, according to the Consul General in Miami.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13695884.htm
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