Honduran delegation reinforces request for TPS in the US, a “priority” Xiomara Castro

Honduras is reinforcing a petition to the United States to extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to some 60,000 Hondurans whose permits expire at the end of the year and enlarge that protection for Hondurans who do not enjoy the migratory benefit.

A delegation from the Honduran Foreign Ministry is in Washington in rounds of meetings until this Friday afternoon in which the immigration issue and the TPS situation have gained importance, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Antonio García.

On Thursday, in a meeting with the special assistant to President Joe Biden Katie Tobin, the Honduran delegation delved into the situation of those who enjoy protection.

“We talked about TPS, about the ongoing lawsuit” and the importance for Honduras, which sees the issue as “our president’s priority,” the vice chancellor said on social media.

The lawsuit that is still in litigation in US federal courts, known as Ramos vs. Mayorkas, originally Ramos vs. Nielsen, was initiated in 2018 when then-President Donald Trump canceled TPS.

Negotiations between the administration of President Joe Biden and the National TPS Alliance, which brings together beneficiaries of the program and lawyers from the US government, came to a standstill after 16 months of trying to find an agreement with no results.

Organizations made up of TPS beneficiaries and lawyers have said that the negotiations would be at an impasse.

In the meeting with the White House official, the Honduran delegation raised the need for a new TPS that could cover more than 100,000 Hondurans living undocumented in the US, according to estimates by the government of the Central American country.

“I understand that there is a lot of nervousness and a lot of speculation has been created about the future of TPS,” said the second-in-command in the Honduran foreign ministry.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from the Voice of America. For its part, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that it does not comment on ongoing court cases, but that TPS beneficiaries from “El Salvador, Nepal, Nicaragua and Honduras will continue to be protected in the coming months.”

Honduras made a formal request for a new TPS to the US in April, a few months after President Xiomara Castro took office. So far, there has been no response from Washington.

The Foreign Ministry mission continued this Friday with meetings to discuss the issue of irregular migration in the region, including the high number of Venezuelan migrants that have been seen stranded in central america after a new parole program for Venezuelans that allows them to legally travel to the US but understands that those who arrive irregularly at the border will be expelled under Title 42, a health policy due to the pandemic.

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