Trump Administration to cancel residency permits of 9,000 Nepalis

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The U.S DHS (Department of Homeland Security) is preparing to cancel the temporary residency permits of at least 9,000 immigrants from Nepal. It is the latest move of Trump administration to expel foreigners living in the United States with some form of provisional status. The internal planning documents indicated and posted by The Washington Post that the U.S Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will give the Nepalis a one-year grace period to prepare their departure. But, they would face deportation after 24^th June 2019. The Nepalis were granted TPS (temporary protected status) which allowed them to remain in the United States legally. It was after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake devastated the country 3-years ago, on 25^th April 2015, killing nearly 9,000 people.

Point to be noted that TPS designation was made by the U.S Congress in 1990. It was created to prevent sending foreigners back to their countries destabilized by natural disasters and armed conflicts. The immigration hard-liners in the administration of Trump have pushed to terminate TPS protections whenever possible. The DHS has canceled the residency permits during recent months of 200,000 Salvadorans, 50,000 Haitians and a smaller number of Nicaraguans and Sudanese. The officials of Trump said that the TPS designation was never intended to afford long-term residency to foreigners who entered the United States illegally or a lack legal status. The law needs DHS to obtain input from the U.S State Department regarding the current conditions in countries with a TPS designation before making a decision to cancel those protections.