Washington, D.C. – Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, with a group of more than 20 colleagues, this week sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and Acting Secretary of State John Sullivan urging them to extend Honduran nationals’ Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which is set to expire on July 5, 2018.
“Ending TPS for Hondurans would force more than 86,031 individuals to go back to a country with severe security challenges,” the senators wrote. “We are also concerned that the Honduran government lacks the capacity to facilitate their return, which would make it difficult to ensure their protection. More importantly, we are extremely concerned about the more than 53,500 U.S. born children who would have to accompany their TPS beneficiary parents and who would be vulnerable to recruitment by gangs in Honduras.”
The senators noted that, in recent years, the United States has increased cooperation with Central American governments, including the Honduran government, in order to address the underlying factors driving migration in the region. Through foreign assistance and diplomatic engagement, the United States has made significant investments to support security, economic development, and stability in Central America. The senators concluded that a decision by the Trump administration to end the TPS designation for Honduras would “threaten the very stability we seek to achieve in Central America and would undermine our foreign policy objectives there.”
Bennet has twice previously called on the Trump administration to extend TPS for Honduran nationals.
A copy of the letter is available HERE.