Department of Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson announced Monday the his agency has re-designated Syria for “Temporary Protected Status” through the end of March 2018.
“The extension allows TPS beneficiaries to retain TPS through March 31, 2018, so long as they continue to meet the eligibility requirements for TPS,” DHS explained in an update to the Federal Register published Monday.
DHS posted detailed instructions for extending protected status for current TPS beneficiaries — as well as instructions for “applying for TPS for the first time” — online.
(Department of Homeland Security)
Under the government’s TPS provisions, immigrants and refugees “are not removable from the United States, can obtain an employment authorization document [and] may be granted travel authorization.”
Once a country is designated for TPS, both nationals of that country and non-nationals who last resided in that country are eligible to apply for protected status.
DHS even gives detailed instructions for proving to the government one’s “identity and nationality” without “primary evidence.”
(Department of Homeland Security)
The United States has steadily accepted Syrian refugees since civil war broke out in the region and has taken in roughly 85,000 total through the end of spring 2016. (RELATED: Hillary’s Syrian Refugee Proposal Will Cost Taxpayers $400 Billion)
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has proposed the country admit 65,000 additional Syrians on top of the Obama Administration’s goal of 100,000.
Refugees wait for tents as Syrians fleeing the northern embattled city of Aleppo wait on February 6, 2016 in Bab al-Salama, near the city of Azaz, northern Syria (Getty Images)
Despite warnings from the CIA that ISIS plans on exploiting the US immigration system to send operatives to the West, the country has actually ramped up the rate of Syrians admitted in recent months.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, 1,037 Syrian refugees entered the United States in the month of May alone. (RELATED: Despite CIA Warnings, 441 Syrians Admitted Week After Orlando Terror Attack)
Four hundred and forty-one Syrian refugees were re-settled across America in the week after radical Islamic terrorist Omar Mateen carried out his deadly attack at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL.
Syria has been designated for TPS since MArch 29, 2012.