March 19, 2010

GREAT NEWS - President Obama just extended TPS to Liberians for another 18 months. Senators from MN and RI are working hard to create a path to permanent status for Liberians on TPS. 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-memorandum-deferred-enforced-departure-liberians

In the 1990s, a bloody civil war raged through the West African nation, killing 250,000 people and displacing more than a million, according to a U.N. report. The United States extended "temporary protection status" to all Liberians who could get to America, and 14,000 of them took advantage of that humanitarian offer.

Temporary protection status is an immigration status somewhere between political asylum and refugee status. Administered by the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, it is extended to nationals of countries facing civil unrest or natural disaster. The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services said approximately 3,600 Liberian nationals are facing delayed enforced departure from the United States. 

On March 29, 2009 President Obama granted approximately 3,500 Liberians extension which is scheduled to expired on March 31, 2010. Please ask President Obama to extend and expand Temporary Protected Status to Liberians for no less that 18 months.