CaribWorldNews, WASHINGTON, D.C., Fri. Mar. 27, 2009: Haitians facing deportation remain in limbo are still awaiting word on temporary protected status. But this week, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services automatically extended through Sept. 30, 2009, employment authorization for Liberian nationals covered under Deferred Enforced Departure.
This the department said was in response to President Obama’s recent announcement on extending DED through March 31, 2010 for qualified Liberians and those persons without nationality who last habitually resided in Liberia.
Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) is within the President’s discretion to authorize and arises from his power to conduct foreign relations. Although DED is not a specific immigration status, individuals covered by DED are not subject to enforcement actions to remove them from the United States, usually for a designated period of time. When presidents have exercised their discretion to provide DED to a certain group of individuals, they generally direct that Executive Branch agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), take steps to implement appropriate procedures to apply DED and related benefits, such as employment authorization, to those individuals.
Although DED was scheduled to end for Liberian nationals on March 31, 2009, President Obama determined that there are compelling foreign policy reasons to continue to defer enforced departure from the United States for eligible Liberian nationals presently living in the United States under the existing grant of DED for 12 months, through March 31, 2010.
This despite the fact the Liberia remains solidly on a democratic path and has not been hit by any natural disaster like Haiti has. Yet the Obama administration remains silent on TPS for Haitians.
The president’s determination for Liberians continued the exclusion of some individuals from DED, including certain criminals, persons subject to the mandatory bars to Temporary Protected Status, and persons whose removal is in the interest of the United States.
In addition to automatically extending the validity of employment authorization documents for Liberian nationals covered under DED, USCIS will publish a notice in the Federal Register with instructions for these individuals on how to obtain employment authorization for the remainder of the 12-month DED extension, through March 31, 2010.
Well President Obama, Haitians deserve some help too. And we mean Haitians in the U.S. facing deportation, not only those at home. So the fear of an exodus is simply silly. Let the Border Patrol agents do their jobs at the borders but ensure you fix the broken immigration system within.
