Syrians with temporary U.S. protection
brace for Trump decision
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[January 25, 2018]
By Yeganeh Torbati
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Targeted by the
Syrian government after providing humanitarian supplies to civilians
fleeing air strikes, Mohammad Alala and his wife escaped in 2012,
eventually obtaining student visas to enter the United States.
They received a form of temporary protected status (TPS) extended to
Syrians in the United States because of Syria's civil war. After moving
to Florida, Alala found work as an engineer and his wife, Dania Kassas,
enrolled in graduate school.
Now, the couple's ability to remain in the United States legally is
uncertain. Their asylum claims are unresolved and TPS for Syrians will
expire at the end of March unless the Department of Homeland Security
decides to extend it.
The decision, due by Jan. 30, will affect some 6,000 Syrians. If their
status is withdrawn, they could lose the ability to work in the United
States and face possible deportation back to Syria, where the war rages
into a seventh year.
President Donald Trump's administration has demonstrated deep skepticism
toward TPS, a program established by Congress in 1990 to provide
temporary reprieve for immigrants whose home countries face disaster or
conflict.

Since Trump took office, DHS has announced an end to protections for
immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan. It has extended
the protection for South Sudanese, and deferred a decision on Hondurans
to later this year.
Administration officials have criticized previous presidents for leaving
the status in place long after the crises that prompted it were over.
Stephen Yale-Loehr, a law professor at Cornell University, said the
decision on Syria could indicate whether the administration dislikes the
entire concept of TPS or simply thinks it was too leniently renewed in
the past.
"If the administration wants to make it known that they are considering
whether to extend TPS on a case-by-case basis, Syria presents a much
clearer case why it should be extended," Yale-Loehr said. If they
rescind the protection for Syrians, "then it signals that they think the
concept and philosophy of TPS is unwarranted."
A DHS spokesman said the administration has not made a decision on
Syria's TPS, which was put in place in 2012, the year after the war
began.
Some groups traditionally critical of the program are holding back in
Syria's case. Roy Beck, president of Numbers USA, which favors
immigration restrictions, said the group has not taken an official
position on whether TPS for Syrians should be rescinded. The group
supported ending protections for immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti,
Nicaragua, and Honduras.

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Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders Mohammad Alala, his wife
Dania both from Syria and their two U.S. born children Taim and Amr
walk near their home in Miramar, Florida, U.S., January 24, 2018.
REUTERS/Saul Martinez

'DANGEROUS SIGNAL'
Alala said he came under suspicion from the government of President
Bashar al-Assad when he refused to participate in pro-government
rallies. He also quietly helped families fleeing government air
strikes with humanitarian aid.
Alala and his family are awaiting a decision on their asylum
application, which they made in 2013. In the meantime, he dreads the
prospect of being sent back.
"The war is still going on in most of Syria, so it's not safe from
my perspective for anyone to go back there," he said.
There is widespread agreement that civilians are in grave danger in
Syria, a fact acknowledged by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a
speech this month.
"Assad has gassed his own people, he has barrel-bombed entire
villages and urban neighborhoods," Tillerson said. "Those abuses
continue to this day."
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees "believes that the
conditions for refugees to return in safety and dignity are not yet
in place in Syria," said Andrej Mahecic, a UNHCR spokesman.
Although the number of Syrians affected by the TPS decision is small
compared to the number of Syrian refugees worldwide, advocates said
stripping them of legal status could encourage countries hosting
more Syrians to force them to return.
"With mounting pressure on Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and
Turkey to return, the U.S. government's termination of temporary
protected status for Syrians would send a particularly dangerous
signal that could impact far larger numbers of Syrians at serious
risk of forced return," said Bill Frelick, director of Human Rights
Watch's refugee program.

Turkey is host to three million Syrian refugees, and UNHCR had
registered two million Syrians in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon as
of January 2018.
(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati, editing by Sue Horton and Grant
McCool)
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