AFP, Washington :
The United States has extended a special protected status for Syrians that keeps some 7,000 of them from being deported back to their war-wracked country, the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday.
President Donald Trump’s administration has stripped that same protection from hundreds of thousands of immigrants from several Central American countries, raising fears among Syrians that they might be next.
“After carefully considering conditions on the ground, I have determined that it is necessary to extend the Temporary Protected Status designation for Syria,” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement.
“It is clear that the conditions upon which Syria’s designation was based continue to exist, therefore an extension is warranted under the statute,” Nielsen said. The extension lasts through September 30, 2019, and Nielsen will review conditions ahead of that date to determine whether it should be extended again or ended.
The US government has stripped similar protection from some 200,000 Salvadorans, 59,000 Haitians and 5,300 Nicaraguans-some of whom had been in the country for decades.
The Syrian civil war broke out after President Bashar al-Assad’s forces carried out a brutal crackdown on protesters in 2011, drawing in countries from around the region as well as the US, Russia and others. The brutal conflict has killed more than 340,000 people and devastated swathes of the country, pushing millions of people to flee.
Under a humanitarian program known as “Temporary Protected Status,” thousands of Syrians have been allowed to avoid returning to their war-torn country of origin. The current program has been set to expire on March 31, forcing Trump to decide whether to extend.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said “ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary conditions” justified giving those in the program another year and a half to remain in the U.S.
“After carefully considering conditions on the ground, I have determined that it is necessary to extend,” Neilsen said. Only those who have been in the United States since Aug. 1, 2016, are eligible for that extension, disqualifying newer arrivals. Still, Neilsen said those who came to the U.S. more recently “may be eligible to seek other forms of immigration relief.” Syria remains entangled in a bloody civil war with no signs of near-term resolution. Although the Islamic State group has been squeezed from almost all of its former territory, armed opposition groups continue to fight with each other, with Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces and with extremist groups that still pose a threat across Syria. U.S. military forces are active both on the ground and in the skies. In areas liberated from IS, the U.S. has said much work is needed to restore basic services like water, sewage and electricity.
“We made a commitment to offer safety to these people in a time of crisis,” said Lia Lindsey of the aid group Oxfam. “Syria, without a doubt, continues to be unsafe and unstable.”
Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., who had urged Trump to both extend the protections and let new arrivals apply, called the move a “missed opportunity.” He added that the decision was “just another cruel way to leave people in need of assistance out in the cold.”
The decision will be felt hardest in California, Michigan and Texas, top destinations for the roughly 86,000 Syrians living in the United States. It follows a contentious debate within the Trump administration about whether to cut off the program, with immigration hardliners in the White House urging a total halt to the program while the State Department and many lawmakers argued for continuing it.
The United States has extended a special protected status for Syrians that keeps some 7,000 of them from being deported back to their war-wracked country, the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday.
President Donald Trump’s administration has stripped that same protection from hundreds of thousands of immigrants from several Central American countries, raising fears among Syrians that they might be next.
“After carefully considering conditions on the ground, I have determined that it is necessary to extend the Temporary Protected Status designation for Syria,” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement.
“It is clear that the conditions upon which Syria’s designation was based continue to exist, therefore an extension is warranted under the statute,” Nielsen said. The extension lasts through September 30, 2019, and Nielsen will review conditions ahead of that date to determine whether it should be extended again or ended.
The US government has stripped similar protection from some 200,000 Salvadorans, 59,000 Haitians and 5,300 Nicaraguans-some of whom had been in the country for decades.
The Syrian civil war broke out after President Bashar al-Assad’s forces carried out a brutal crackdown on protesters in 2011, drawing in countries from around the region as well as the US, Russia and others. The brutal conflict has killed more than 340,000 people and devastated swathes of the country, pushing millions of people to flee.
Under a humanitarian program known as “Temporary Protected Status,” thousands of Syrians have been allowed to avoid returning to their war-torn country of origin. The current program has been set to expire on March 31, forcing Trump to decide whether to extend.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said “ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary conditions” justified giving those in the program another year and a half to remain in the U.S.
“After carefully considering conditions on the ground, I have determined that it is necessary to extend,” Neilsen said. Only those who have been in the United States since Aug. 1, 2016, are eligible for that extension, disqualifying newer arrivals. Still, Neilsen said those who came to the U.S. more recently “may be eligible to seek other forms of immigration relief.” Syria remains entangled in a bloody civil war with no signs of near-term resolution. Although the Islamic State group has been squeezed from almost all of its former territory, armed opposition groups continue to fight with each other, with Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces and with extremist groups that still pose a threat across Syria. U.S. military forces are active both on the ground and in the skies. In areas liberated from IS, the U.S. has said much work is needed to restore basic services like water, sewage and electricity.
“We made a commitment to offer safety to these people in a time of crisis,” said Lia Lindsey of the aid group Oxfam. “Syria, without a doubt, continues to be unsafe and unstable.”
Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., who had urged Trump to both extend the protections and let new arrivals apply, called the move a “missed opportunity.” He added that the decision was “just another cruel way to leave people in need of assistance out in the cold.”
The decision will be felt hardest in California, Michigan and Texas, top destinations for the roughly 86,000 Syrians living in the United States. It follows a contentious debate within the Trump administration about whether to cut off the program, with immigration hardliners in the White House urging a total halt to the program while the State Department and many lawmakers argued for continuing it.
