Obama Doesn't Have to Deport Central American Refugees: Report
Published on Wednesday, January 13, 2016
by Common Dreams
Obama Doesn't Have to Deport Central American Refugees: Report
President has legal authority to temporarily protect more than 750,000 undocumented people from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras
by Sarah Lazare, staff writer
President Barack Obama doesn't have to continue the widely-criticized practice of detaining and deporting Central American refugees en masse.
In fact, according to a new report from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), Obama has the legal authority—right now—to grant temporary protection to more than 750,000 undocumented people from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras who are currently living in the United States seeking refuge from violence.
Entitled, "Relief Not Raids," the report is a direct nod to the expansion of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) proposed by human rights groups and lawmakers, including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Senator Bernie Sanders.
TPS provides humanitarian protection and short-term relief from deportation for people whose repatriation would put them in danger.
"Based on the individualized conditions within each country, the Administration has the legal authority to designate El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras for Temporary Protected Status because of the existence of 'extraordinary and temporary conditions' and de facto 'armed conflicts,'" writes Jose Magaña-Salgado, immigration policy attorney at ILRC and author of the report.
The report calculates that designating TPS for El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras "would make approximately 1.2 million (1,226,044) additional individuals potentially eligible for Temporary Protected Status, though only 757,422 (62%) would ultimately obtain this status because of various eligibility criteria and application requirements."
Failure to extend this protection could be deadly.
More:
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/01/13/obama-doesnt-have-deport-central-american-refugees-report
