The Promise and Challenge of Humanitarian Protection in the United States: Making Temporary Protected Status Work as a Safe Haven

In 1990, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) began as an avenue of relief for migrants fearful of armed conflict, natural disaster, epidemic or other extraordinary conditions in their countries. This paper highlights how Congress and the Department of Homeland Security struggle to balance TPS’s humanitarian protection against the possibility of attracting an influx of new migrants. By assessing Haitians’ TPS registrations and port-of-entry arrivals across six years, author Andrew Schoenholtz demonstrates that TPS designation, re-designation and extension for Haitians did not create an overall magnetic effect of drawing in more migrants. To ensure TPS programs retain their character as forms of temporary relief, the author cites the United Nations High Commission for Refugee’s repatriation policy as a guide for encouraging voluntary departure. According to this policy, once a source country’s crisis ends, the sheltering country should offer financial incentives to facilitate the safe return and stable reintegration of TPS beneficiaries. In the U.S. context, the Social Security tax payments of TPS recipients could be utilized to cover the cost of such a policy, given that recipients are not eligible to collect their retirement benefits. As for TPS recipients coming from countries with prolonged crises, Schoenholtz proposes a legislative fix, i.e. allowing paths to legal permanent residence so as not to uproot family and disrupt work life. (Monica Leon for The Immigrant Learning Center’s Public Education Institute)

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