NumbersUSA Denounces TPS Extension As Proof
Bush Can't Be Trusted On

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, NumbersUSA decried President Bush’s decision to extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to more than 300,000 Central Americans living in the United States.

“If the President won't ever send these guests home, why should we believe he has the ability or the will to send home the millions of guest workers he's campaigning to bring here?" said NumbersUSA
Executive Director Roy Beck. “The President has been campaigning around the country arguing that his proposed massive foreign guest worker program would work, but how is that possible if the government is incapable of making all guests go back home? By not asking the TPS guests to go home, he is sending a strong signal that his guest worker program for illegal aliens would in reality be a permanent amnesty.”

The TPS program allows both temporary visa holders and illegal aliens from a country in turmoil to reside and work in the United States until the turmoil is over. The Immigration Act of 1990 created TPS and went on to specify that El Salvador would be the first to receive TPS for 18 months. Approximately 180,000 Salvadorans signed up for TPS. The current extension covers approximately 225,000 Salvadorans who came to the United States either under the initial TPS or as a result of the 2001 earthquake; and 75,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans who were affected by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. The TPS program was never meant to be permanent, yet multiple extensions are indications that it is becoming permanent for the 304,000 Central Americans for whom TPS will apply for another year.

“TPS is proof that the administration doesn't understand the meaning of the word ‘temporary,’” said Beck. “Many Salvadorans have had TPS since the 1990 Act was passed. Why should the public believe the federal government will do better at requiring temporary workers to leave after six years if they let Salvadorans stay for 16 and counting? The reason they let them stay is not because there is an
emergency back home or because they are a tremendous asset to the United States, but because they are a cash cow for the home country.”

"After seeing this latest sign of the Bush Administration's impotence in enforcing and administering immigration law, U.S. Senators should have their proof that it would be irresponsible to vote for any bill that would expand guest worker visas."

NumbersUSA is a non-profit, non-partisan, public policy organization with more than 130,000 active members. It opposes efforts to use federal immigration policies to force mass U.S. population growth and to depress wages of vulnerable workers.
 

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