Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colorado) introduced the TPS Act of 2018, H.R. 4750, on January 10, 2018. The bill terminates the temporary protected status (TPS) program and grants lawful permanent residency (LPR) to qualifying TPS holders. TPS is granted by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to certain foreign-born individuals who cannot safely return to their home countries because of ongoing armed conflict, environmental disasters, or other extraordinary circumstances. Currently, over 300,000 foreign nationals living in the United States possess TPS status. For more information about specific countries designated for TPS, see our fact sheet here.
What would the TPS Act do?
- Terminates the TPS program upon enactment.
- Current TPS holders are granted a three-year extension of protection, while new enrollment in the program is prohibited.
- After the three-year period, TPS holders can apply for LPR status if they:
- Were TPS holders on the day before the termination of the program;
- Applying within six months of the end of the three-year extension;
- Meet all admissibility requirements under the Immigration and Nationality Act;
- Pay an application fee;
- Submit biographic and biometric data to the Department of Homeland Security; and
- Pass a criminal and national security background check.
- TPS holders that have applied for LPR status are protected from removal if they appear to be eligible.
- Temporarily, 50,000 visas are proportionally deducted from family-sponsorship, employment-based, and diversity immigrant visas categories to accommodate TPS holders that adjust their status.
How many TPS eligible to apply for LPR status under the TPS Act?
- As of August 2017, TPS re-registrations numbered approximately 325,000. This represents the number of individuals who could be eligible under the TPS Act.
TPS Holders Are Valuable Contributors to the United States:
- TPS holders participate in our economy. TPS holders from El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti contribute a combined $4.5 billion in pre-tax wages or salary income annually to U.S. gross domestic product and $6.9 billion to Social Security and Medicare over a decade.
- TPS holders have high rates of labor force participation. 88.5 percent of TPS holders from El Salvador and Honduras are working. Male TPS holders work in the following sectors or occupations: construction and painting (23 percent), driving/deliveries (13.7 percent), cleaning buildings or houses (7.3 percent), gardening (5.4 percent), cooking (3.9 percent), or store clerk (2.5) percent. Female TPS holders work in these sectors or occupations: cleaning buildings or houses (27.9 percent), childcare (6.6 percent), cooking (5.2 percent), clothing manufacturing (4 percent) or store clerk (3.8 percent).
- TPS holders have established lives throughout the U.S. 30 percent of households with a Haitian, Honduran, or Salvadoran TPS holder have mortgage. The six states with the largest populations of TPS holders from these three countries are California (55,000), Texas (45,000), Florida (45,000), New York (26,000), Virginia (24,000), and Maryland (23,000).
- TPS holders come from a diverse set of places. In addition to the nearly 300,000 TPS holders from El Salvador, Haiti, and Honduras, current TPS holders also come from Nepal (8,950), Nicaragua (2,550), Somalia (250), South Sudan (70), Sudan (1,040), Syria (5,800), and Yemen (1,000).