Temporary Protected Status at Risk: Implications for Central America and U.S. Policy

Since 1990, the U.S. government has offered Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to nationals of countries experiencing natural disaster or civil conflict. In the Americas, TPS protections have been extended to hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans, Hondurans, Nicaraguans, and Haitians, allowing them to live and work legally in the United States so long as the designation is renewed.

In recent weeks the Trump administration has ended TPS protections for Haitians and Nicaraguans, and deferred a decision affecting Hondurans until July 2018. A decision on whether or not to renew TPS for citizens of El Salvador—who represent 60 percent of all TPS holders—is expected to be announced in early January.

Please join the Migration Policy Institute and the Wilson Center’s Latin America Program for a teleconference focused on the legal framework for TPS (particularly for Hondurans and Salvadorans) and profile of current TPS holders; the capacity of El Salvador and Honduras to receive and meaningfully reintegrate returnees; and the implications of TPS termination for broader U.S. policy goals in Central America.

Speakers:

Doris Meissner, Director, MPI’s U.S. Immigration Policy Program, and former Commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service

Eric L. Olson, Deputy Director, Latin American Program, Woodrow Wilson Center

Jorge Peraza-Breedy, Chief of Mission for the Northern Triangle of Central America, International Organization for Migration

Moderators:

Cynthia J. Arnson, Director, Latin American Program, Woodrow Wilson Center

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