(NEW YORK, 20 November 2017)  Over 50 law professors and scholars signed a letter addressed to Elaine Duke, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, requesting extensions of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti and El Salvador.  The letter, drafted by the Global Justice Clinic and the Immigrant Rights Clinic at NYU School of Law, outlines the strong legal basis for granting these extensions and encourages Acting Secretary Duke to exercise her statutory authority and extend TPS for each nation for eighteen months.

TPS is an immigration status provided to nationals of certain countries that have experienced natural disaster, civil war, or face other conditions that place their nationals at risk if deported. Both El Salvador and Haiti were designated for TPS following devastating earthquakes and subsequent natural and man-made disasters, and neither country has yet to overcome the unprecedented damage and extraordinary challenges caused by these disasters.

Last month, the Global Justice Clinic published Extraordinary Conditions: A Statutory Analysis of Haiti’s Qualifications for TPS, a report that draws on field research and quantitative evidence to demonstrate that while Haiti had made some progress in recovering from the earthquake, Hurricane Matthew and the cholera outbreak posed significant setbacks and the Haitian government is still overwhelmed by the fight to control cholera, alleviate hunger, and find housing for the displaced.

Read the full letter here.