…..and more appear to be coming!
For new readers, Temporary Protected Status, is basically a sham LEGAL immigration program that is anything but temporary.
The idea behind it is that we would give temporary refugee status to people already in the US for some other reason (tourist or student visa for example) when a calamity befalls their home country. The thinking is that it wouldn’t be humane of us to send them home to a country in chaos either from war or natural disaster. It is supposed to last for 18 months and allows the temporary ‘refugees’ to work, but not collect welfare.
Sounds fine and dandy except there are those with TPS status who are here for decades as the federal government just continues to extend the deadline, and you know darn well many are now collecting welfare and voting! See our post last week about the newest TPS designated country—Nepal.
Syrians were granted TPS status in 2012, but I have laugh when I see they have a rolling deadline of sorts!
Here is Aljazeera on the news that not very many Syrians want to identify themselves to the US government by signing up for TPS.
Some, Aljazeera says, are applying for asylum, but thousands are simply moving around America to avoid detection! Emphasis below is mine:
The window for Syrians in the United States to apply for a special temporary legal designation closes July 6, but less than half of the estimated 10,000 who qualify have applied so far. Advocates say that disparity reflects fear of the U.S. immigration system and may indicate that more Syrians in the U.S. are applying for asylum instead as the war drags into its fifth year.
[….]
Under the program, Shaguj [star of the story, Osama Shaguj, a 28-year-old data analyst—ed] gets authorization to work and the right to live in the United States, but only for 18 months at a time.
The Department of Homeland Security first ordered that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) be given to Syrian nationals already in the United States in March 2012, and has twice extended the designation for 18 months. To qualify, Syrians must demonstrate they were in the country before the cutoff date — originally March 2012 and now, Jan. 5, 2015.
Anyone who arrived even a day later cannot apply.
Under the latest extension, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service, which administers TPS applications, reports that 3,124 Syrians have re-registered and another 1,835 have signed up for the first time. That is fewer than half of the number of Syrians the office estimated (PDF) would qualify.
But many of those people who could have been eligible are now applying for asylum. [This number should be available through the asylum system—ed]
[….]
Undocumented people and TPS holders are not eligible for public benefits, but Kayali [See photo and caption—ed] raises funds from her community specifically for Syrians who may not have connections on which to rely. But, she says many would rather keep a very low profile, changing their phone numbers frequently and traveling to different cities.
[….]
In practice, Syrians are finding ways to relocate outside of the refugee system, though they can still apply for asylum if they qualify when they reach a new country. This can mean flying to Europe, crossing the Mediterranean, or settling for temporary solutions like those who hold TPS in the United States.
Read it all by clicking here.
So it sounds like that of an estimated 10,000 Syrians in America now, as many as 5,000 could be under the radar somewhere in America.