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A
program known as Temporary Protection Status, set up in 1990,
exempts foreign nationals from being deported to home countries
deemed unstable because of natural disasters or armed conflict.
It protects more than 300,000 people living in the United
States.
Citing unnamed officials, the Post reported on Friday that
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a letter to acting
Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke on Tuesday that
conditions in Central America and Haiti that had been used to
justify the protection no longer applied.
The Department of Homeland Security has until Monday to announce
its plans for about 57,000 Hondurans and 2,500 Nicaraguans whose
protections under the program will expire in early January, the
Post said.
A State Department representative said no decisions had been
announced regarding the program for nationals of Haiti, El
Salvador, Honduras or Nicaragua, and that the department had no
comment on discussions with the Homeland Security Department.
The Homeland Security Department did not immediately respond to
a Reuters request for comment.
The Post quoted a Homeland Security spokesman as saying Duke had
made no decision on the program.
Last month people close to Republican President Donald Trump's
administration said the White House was considering
anti-immigration activists' appeals to pull back on the program.
Trump campaigned last year on a promise to deport large numbers
of immigrants, a racially tinged political theme that won him
passionate support among some U.S. voters.
Immigration advocacy groups fear the Trump administration will
curtail the program by refusing to renew the protected status of
some of the nine countries covered: El Salvador, Haiti,
Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and
Yemen.
(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Writing by Mohammad Zargham,
Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
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