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By
Richard
Irwin,
Editor,
Immigrants' Rights Update
On Oct. 1, 2007, approximately 3,600
nationals and former residents of Liberia will lose their temporary
protected status (TPS) when, on that date, the designation of Liberia as
a country whose nationals and former residents may be eligible for TPS
is terminated, according to a
Sept. 20, 2006, Federal Register notice.
The same notice automatically extends for
six months the validity of employment authorization documents (EADs)
issued as of Sept. 20, 2006, to Liberians under the Liberian TPS
program. The automatic extension is effective through Apr. 1, 2007.
The U.S. attorney general designated Liberia
for TPS in Oct. 2002 because ongoing armed conflict there made it unsafe
for people from Liberia to return to their homeland. The secretary of
Homeland Security extended that designation in 2003; then, in a Federal
Register notice published on Aug. 25, 2004, the secretary simultaneously
terminated the existing TPS program for Liberia and redesignated Liberia
for TPS, explaining that while the civil war in Liberia which prompted
the initial designation had ended, "the damage caused by the civil war
has led to extraordinary and temporary conditions [there] that prevent
the safe return" of Liberians to their country.
The last country whose designation for TPS
was terminated without the country being immediately redesignated for
TPS was Montserrat, a small island nation in the Caribbean. By the time
the TPS program for Montserrat was terminated on Feb. 27, 2005, it had
been in effect since 1997 and 292 Montserratians had been granted TPS.
The Bush administration terminated the program for Montserrat despite
the fact that the natural disaster that had prompted the original
designation was (and still is) ongoing: eruptions of a volcano that
have caused widespread devastation and that,
according to the New York Times, forced two-thirds of
Monsterrat's inhabitants to flee to surrounding islands, Britain, the
U.S., and elsewhere. The rationale provided for terminating
Montserratian TPS was that since the volcano's eruptions are likely to
continue indefinitely, the disaster they constitute is not temporary,
and TPS was intended by Congress only to provide temporary relief from
temporary unsafe conditions.
The termination of the TPS program for Montserrat
affected nearly 500 people, according to a
news release issued by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) in February
2005. These included the individuals who had been granted TPS as well
as their dependents, including children who were born in the U.S. and
who are thus U.S. citizens. The Bush administration's decision not to
redesignate Montserrat for TPS prompted Schumer to introduce legislation
to allow Montserratians with TPS to adjust to permanent resident status,
but the bill went nowhere. Nor did a letter sent by Schumer and
Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry (both D-MA) urging President Bush
to immediately reverse the decision have any effect.
The termination of the TPS program for Liberia will deeply
impact many times more people than did the termination of Montserratian
TPS — certainly thousands of individuals and possibly hundreds of
families. It is likely that, as was true of the Montserratians, among
the Liberians are entrepreneurs who have established thriving businesses
in the communities where they live, valued employees of local
businesses, and people with no property or relatives to return to in
their devastated homeland.
To justify the termination of the TPS program for Liberia, the
Federal Register notice, which appears over Dept. of Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff's name, says, "The uncertain situation that
characterized the immediate aftermath of the armed conflict's end and
the temporary and extraordinary conditions caused by the long war have
improved." The notice also mentions the presence in Liberia of "a large
and robust peacekeeping mission," the existence there of a
democratically-elected government, as well as efforts by the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to repatriate tens of thousands
of Liberian refugees. However, a recent investigation by BBC News found
that United Nations peacekeeping troops in Liberia have engaged in
systematic sexual abuse of children "involving food being given out to
teenage refugees in return for sex." The
BBC quoted a staff
person with a nongovernmental charitable organization as saying that
reports of incidents of sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers are "still
rampant, despite pronouncements that they have been curbed."
The automatic extension of employment authorization applies to
anyone who received an EAD under the TPS program for Liberia and whose
TPS has not been withdrawn or denied. These EADs were issued on Form
I-766 (Employment Authorization Document), and they bear an expiration
date of Oct. 1, 2006. On its face, the I-766 will contain, under
“Category,” the notation “A‑12” or “C‑19.”
Despite the expiration date these EADs bear, employers are
required to accept them as proof of employment eligibility through Apr.
1, 2006. The Federal Register notice suggests that workers who opt to
use the EADs as proof of work authorization when completing the I‑9
employment eligibility verification process should “also present a copy
of this Federal Register Notice regarding the automatic extension
. . . .” Under the antidiscrimination provision of the law that
requires employers to verify their employees’ eligibility to work in the
U.S., employers should accept the version of the EAD described in the
previous paragraph without requesting further documentary proof of the
bearer’s work authorization. For example, they should not request proof
that the bearer is a citizen of Liberia.
Employers with questions regarding the automatic extension of
work authorization may call the U.S. Dept. of Justice Office of Special
Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC)
employer hotline at 1-800-255-8155 or 1-800-362-2735 (Telecommunications
Device for the Deaf, or TDD). Employees or job applicants may call the
OSC employee hotline at 1-800-255-7688 or 1-800-237-2515 (TDD) for
information regarding the automatic extension.
In order to retain their status until the TPS program for
Liberia terminates on Sept. 30, 2007, Liberians with TPS were required
to reregister for the program between Sept. 20 and Nov. 20, 2006.
According to the Federal Register notice, "Once the Secretary
determines that a TPS designation should be terminated, aliens who had
TPS under that designation are expected to plan for their departure from
the United States and may apply for other immigration benefits for which
they may be eligible.” Furthermore, any Liberians with TPS who, as of
Sept. 30, 2007, have not been granted some other lawful immigration
status or permission to remain in the U.S. "will begin to accrue
unlawful presence as of October 1, 2007."
71 FR 55000–04 (Sept. 20, 2006).
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