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GUYANA CHRONICLE Wednesday, November 8, 2017
US sets final date for Nicaraguan immigrants’ protected status
Demonstrators carrying signs march during a rally by immigration activists CASA and United We Dream demanding the Trump administration protect the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the Temporary Protection Status (TPS) programs, in Washington, U.S., August 15, 2017. Image copyright Reuters The US has announced that in January 2019 it will terminate a programme which gave Nicaraguan immigrants protection from deportation. The decision will affect thousands of Nicaraguan living in the
US, who will have to seek “an alternative lawful immigration status” or leave the US. The Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Nicaragua was introduced in 1999 after Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America. It has been repeatedly renewed since. Both the Bush and Obama administrations argued that Central American nations which were granted TPS after Hurricane Mitch could not cope with the return of thousands of their nationals and extended the programme’s duration. But critics say the pro-
gramme, which was created to offer temporary protection in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, has become a permanent fixture and allowed some immigrants to stay for almost two decades by renewing their visas time and time again. Thousands of Nicaraguans and tens of thousands of Hondurans have been living in the US for almost 20 years thanks to the TPS programme. Under the programme, they are allowed to work and many have raised families in the United States. But on Monday the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland
Security announced that the “substantial but temporary conditions caused in Nicaragua by Hurricane Mitch no longer exist” and that its TPS designation would therefore have to be terminated. Elaine Duke said the country’s TPS designation would therefore have to be terminated. While it was due to expire in January 2018, she said it would be delayed by one year “to allow for an orderly transition”. Nicaraguans will now have until 5 January 2019 to legalise their status or leave, she said. HONDURANS IN LIMBO
Meanwhile Honduran immigrants, whose TPS was also due to expire in January 2018, have been left in limbo as a decision on their status was delayed. Ms Duke said she needed more information. Hondurans’ TPS has been temporarily extended until July 2018 to allow US officials more time to assess conditions in Honduras. But the Department of Homeland Security already warned in its statement that a termination of the programme was “possible”. Ms Duke said she recognised “the difficulty facing citizens of Nicaragua
- and potentially citizens of other countries - who have received TPS designation for close to two decades” and called on the US Congress “to enact a permanent solution for this inherently temporary programme”. By 23 November, the Department of Homeland Security will have to make a decision on whether to extend protective status for 46,000 Haitian immigrants granted TPS after the 2010 earthquake. A decision on El Salvador’s status, which was given TPS after its 2001 earthquake, is due on 8 January 2018. (BBC)
Lags, gaps threaten progress on population development in Region The region of Latin America and the Caribbean has made progress on implementing measures regarding population and development, but some lags and gaps may undermine the solidity of these advances, representatives of countries in the region agreed today while gathered at the Special Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Population and Development. Along with Mexico in the Presidency, the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference is comprised of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela. The meeting, which will be held through Thursday, November 9 at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), was inaugurated by Raúl García-Buchaca, ECLAC’s Deputy Executive Secretary for Management and Program Analysis; Patricia Chemor, Secretary General of Mexico’s National Population Council (CONAPO), in her role as President of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference; and Esteban Caballero, Direc-
tor of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Regional Office. In his opening remarks, Raúl García-Buchaca affirmed that a preliminary overview of the four years of implementation of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development indicates that Latin America and the Caribbean has made progress on comprehending and acting upon some issues, such as the institutional framework for population matters, civil society participation, sexual and reproductive rights, and the need for indicators and statistical data to examine the gains made. However, he said that in 2015, a little over one-fourth of the regional population – or 172.5 million people forming part of 56.5 million households – experienced social exclusion. “The likely weakening of social protection systems due to the reduction in public budgets earmarked for social development that some countries in the region are experiencing would only serve to deepen these disadvantages,” the senior ECLAC official warned. In the same vein, Patricia Chemor called on the region to maintain its global leadership on matters of population and development and said that, given the complexity of national challenges, joint
and coordinated work is the only viable way to continue forging ahead on implementation of the Montevideo Consensus. This document – adopted at the first meeting of the Conference, held in 2013 in Uruguay – is the region’s most important intergovernmental agreement on population and development. Esteban Caballero, meanwhile, underscored that the 2030 Agenda and the Montevideo Consensus call for duly integrating the
economic, social and environmental spheres. “For such a mission, the important thing is to address the issue from a population perspective, asking the question: Who is being left behind in development processes?” he sustained. During the opening session, officials presented the Final Report of the Ad Hoc Working Group charged with preparing a proposal on the indicators for regional follow-up of
the Montevideo Consensus. The proposal by the ad hoc group, made up of experts from 17 countries in the region, is aimed at providing an indicator framework for drafting the regional report for follow-up of the Montevideo Consensus, supporting countries in the preparation of their national reports, and facilitating and promoting synergies and complementarity with other agendas, in particular with the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development. The proposal includes a total of 140 indicators, 44 of them new, which address issues such as the population’s integration in sustainable development and the areas of childhood, adolescence and youth, aging, sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, internal and international migration, territorial inequality, and indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples.