More mass deportations. Ho Hum.
by digby
This is just heartbreaking:
The Department of Homeland Security ended temporary deportation protectionfor 57,000 Honduran immigrants on Friday, forcing them to either find another legal way to stay in the country or pack up their lives and leave.
DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced that the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program for Honduras will officially end on January 5, 2020. Until then, Honduran immigrants on TPS will either have to change their legal status or leave the country.
Honduras was added to the list of TPS countries in 1999, after Hurricane Mitch devastated the country (along with Nicaragua, which was also added to TPS at the same time). Mitch was the deadliest hurricane in the Western Hemisphere in more than 200 years. More than 11,000 people across Central America died and millions were left homeless in the wake of the storm.
“Since 1999, conditions in Honduras that resulted from the hurricane have notably improved,” DHS said in a statement Friday. “Additionally, since the last review of the country’s conditions in October 2016, Honduras has made substantial progress in post-hurricane recovery and reconstruction from the 1998 Hurricane Mitch.”
Honduras has one of the world’s highest murder rates outside of a war zone. The country has seen deadly protests since the disputed reelection of President Juan Orlando Hernandez last November. Security forces have used excessive and lethal force against protesters, and shot a majority of the people who were killed in protests, the U.N. human rights office reported.
There is no other reason for this except xenophobia. They could say there will be no more such TPS entries "until they figure out what the hell is going on" or they could change that program for the future. But deporting people who have been here, contributing to the nation, paying taxes, living lawfully in order to prove that we won't be letting these people from "shithole countries" "take advantage" is just sickening.
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