Under US immigration law, Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, allows undocumented immigrants to remain in the country for a period of time without being deported.  It applies when conditions in a receiving country are too dangerous to justify deportation on account of natural disaster, armed conflict, or other comparable circumstance.

There are lots of reasons why the US should consider TPS for Caribbean countries, based on humanitarian considerations alone.  I outline many of then in a Florida Sun-Sentinel oped, linked here.

But if you’re not convinced that TPS is morally justified, consider the practical benefit. Allowing Caribbean immigrants to stay in the US will actually speed up recovery, and help bring an end to catastrophic conditions on the affected islands.  As I explained in the oped:

TPS helps reverse the very conditions that make deportation so dangerous. Immigrants from TPS countries are permitted to work, and large sums of what they earn are sent back as remittances to their home country. Liberia received upwards of $340 million annually, a full 25 percent of the country’s GDP, before TPS was terminated earlier this year. Remittances to Sierra Leone and Guinea also helped move those countries towards stability, and off the TPS list.

TPS is no easy sell in the current environment.  Haiti is up for TPS renewal this month, following a designation and series of extensions it received after the 2010 earthquake.  The Department of Homeland Security will have the final say, but an influential assessment released last week by the State Department recommended against an additional extension.  If DHS adopts those findings, TPS for Haiti will expire in January 2018.

Nonetheless, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging the Trump Administration to grant TPS to Caribbean nations facing a long recovery.  If they succeed, upwards of 500,000 Caribbean immigrants could potentially benefit, as would the islands themselves.

– Kathleen Bergin

Related: Will TPS for Haiti Be Renewed