Speech #1100060476

Mr. Chairman. as you know. Congress has granted the Secretary of Homeland Security the authority to grant temporary refuge to aliens. usually illegal immigrants. from particular countries under temporary protected status. Congress intended this provision to live up to its name and be temporary. Unfortunately. a pattern of abuse has emerged in the temporary protected status. or TPS. program. DHS can grant TPS status to the nationals of a country for as long as 18 months and can later extend the TPS period indefinitely by adding extensions up to 18 months each. The administration has begun to utilize TPS as a de facto amnesty for illegal immigrants from certain Central American countries. TPS status was granted to Honduran and Nicaraguan nationals at the end of 1998 following Hurricane Mitch. The administration has extended TPS for these individuals multiple times. the latest extension lasting until January 2009. more than 10 years after the hurricane. TPS status for Salvadoran nationals was granted early in 2001 as a result of earthquakes hitting the region. The latest TPS extension for Salvadoran nationals lasts until September 2007. again. long after temporary dislocations caused by the earthquakes. There are currently some 248.000 Salvadorans. 81.000 Hondurans and 4.000 Nicaraguans. mostly aliens who came illegally to the United States. benefiting from TPS status. Our Nation currently has a growing gang problem. and we have had testimony in the Judiciary Committee that 60 to 85 percent of some of the most violent gang members in the United States are here illegally. Of 5.000 gang members in a database that ICE compiled for Operation Community Shield. 291 El Salvadoran nationals. 43 Hondurans. and 1 Nicaraguan had been granted temporary protected status. 6.7 percent of the total. At least one of the suspected MS13 members accused in the 2002 rape of two deaf girls in Massachusetts had been in our country protected by TPS. In fact. currently. a criminal gang member could literally stand on a street corner and announce that they were a member of a violent criminal gang and that they came here illegally. and if protected under TPS. no law enforcement officer could touch them until they had actually committed a crime. TPS is being used to grant longtime residence. a perpetual amnesty. to illegal immigrants of certain favored nationalities. This amendment will return TPS to its original Intent of providing temporary refuge during temporary periods of crisis. It would bar any funds made available in this Act from being used to extend TPS for nationals of a country beyond the original period of not more than 18 months. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment. Mr.