U.S. embassy cables warned against ending TPS
Nick Miroff, Seung Min Kim and Joshua Partlow for the Washington Post report that, despite the recommendation of senior State Department officials, the Trump administration has moved to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Central Americans and Haitians living and working legally in the United States. The senior U.S. diplomats warned that mass deportations could destabilize the region and trigger a new surge of undocumented immigration. The warnings were transmitted to top State Department officials last year in embassy cables now at the center of an investigation by Senate Democrats, whose findings were recently referred to the Government Accountability Office.
The Washington Post obtained a copy of their report. The cables’ contents, which have not been previously disclosed, reveal career diplomats’ strong opposition to terminating the immigrants’ provisional residency, known as TPS, and the possible deportation of hundreds of thousands of people to some of the poorest and most violent places in the Americas.
Then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson dismissed the advice and joined other administration officials in pressuring leaders at the Department of Homeland Security to strip the immigrants of their protections, according to current and former administration officials whose accounts were consistent with Senate Democrats’ findings.
KJ